Roma-Napoli ends 2-0 THE NEWS
Roma beat Napoli 2-0 at the Olimpico and overtakes them in the standings returning to within three points of that fourth place (now Bologna) which is worth a place in the Europe that counts.
For Mazzarri’s team, however, it was an absolutely negative evening, in which they finished in… eight and a half due to the expulsions of Politano and Osimhen (truly the worst way for the Nigerian to celebrate the extension of his contract until 2026 for ten million a year) and Natan’s shoulder injury after which the Brazilian remains on the pitch simply for the honor of signing and trying to do as little damage as possible by moving forward.
Here then, in the 51st minute, Lukaku’s goal to make it 2-0 hurt the Azzurri even more, deadly as always on the last restart, four against one, by Mourinho’s men. The Belgian lands a left foot, and Meret can’t do anything.
But the hero of this hitherto balanced match was Roma captain Lorenzo Pellegrini, in this period much discussed in the capital (just listen to the Roman ether) to the point that someone has hypothesized his departure towards Saudi Arabia. Instead this evening he was the arm of Mourinho’s mind on the pitch, who after Politano’s expulsion (reaction foul on Zalewski with a ‘kick’ of frustration and a direct red card, perhaps excessive from the referee Colombo) understood that he had to dare and sent three offensive players onto the field together, namely Pellegrini himself, Azmoun and El Shaarawy, while Napoli, following Mazzarri’s indication, switched to a three-man defence. And Pellegrini himself repaid his coach by scoring the 1-0 with a counter-ball shot and without even looking at the goal. in short, a feat that can make him reconcile with that part of the public who discusses him too much.
And Napoli? In the next match against Monza of the Neapolitan Palladino he will not have Politano and Osimhen, naive to get sent off for two interventions that were certainly not bad but late, and not even Lobotka who was injured and was forced to leave. And Natan too, judging by his grimaces of pain, gave the impression of being out of commission. Bad Kvaratskhelia, who has always struggled to jump man, and therefore was a bad copy of the one from last season.
The first half had ended without goals, and the Giallorossi had been more dangerous, even hitting the crossbar with Bove and taking control of the match, also thanks to a complicated start by Napoli which then came out in the final phase of the first half of the game. There was also a goal from Belotti, who went away to Rrahmani, creating a ‘kiss’ ball for Bove who kicked with a sure shot but, unfortunately for him, at Meret. always very attentive during the match (his open-handed intervention on Lukaku was beautiful in the second half). So Roma, sometimes too harsh with their defenders, threw their heart over the obstacle and brought home three truly precious points.
For further information, ANSA Agency Osimhen renews with Napoli until 2026 – Football – Ansa.it Social announcement: it’s done, contract extended for one year (ANSA)
Mourinho: without Dybala, Smalling and Sanches, not a strong squad
“My feeling is that immediately after the first ten minutes we would have won the match, we always played well even 11 against 11. We were always in control of the match.” José Mourinho said this to Dazn after the 2-0 victory against Napoli.
“The match before Christmas changes the mood of the party – he added -. Before entering the pitch we talked about our Christmas and that of the Roman fans. We managed to stay close to where we want to be”.
To those who asked him if Roma’s squad is inferior to that of Bologna and Fiorentina in the Champions League race, he replied: “Without Smalling, Renato Sanches, Dybala we are not a very strong squad”.
Then moving on to the team’s objectives, he underlined that “I prefer to do my management, game after game. It’s not a criticism, we have a group of players who have a difficult medical history. If we all play every game I wouldn’t have any kind of problem to say that we are going to fight with everyone to get to fourth place. But unfortunately we have these difficulties, in addition to those of Financial Fair Play”. “It’s one thing what we want to do at market level – concluded the Roma coach -, it’s another thing what we can. For this reason I don’t want to talk about a clear objective”.
Mazzarri: ‘I’m not talking about referees, we’re better with the eleven’
“I’m not talking about the referees, we had a lot of ball possession but we weren’t cynical near the area. Apart from Belotti’s chance, we did a lot more. Politano was restarting in the spaces and we entered very well thinking of taking the lead , it happened the way it happened.” Walter Mazzarri said this after the defeat at the Olimpico against Roma on Dazn.
Then speaking about the choice of formation and formations, he added: “It seems like a joke. After two games everyone told me ‘why don’t we play 3-man’. When I spoke to the president I came because I liked last year’s team, some of the players They are missing and are less fit. When we played against strong teams we did well. There were adjustments to be made because the team was stretched too thin, we saw improvements with Atalanta, or even in Turin.”
“I liked this game, even today we had 68% of ball possession – said Mazzarri -, we have the flaw of not finishing. For now the path is right, in the future we can also change. At the level of play we play similar compared to last year, but with less fit people.”
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2023-12-23 23:03:07
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