He celebrated with a gesture of a kiss and a heart towards the stands. Then teammate Sam Beukema grabbed him, hugged him and lifted him into the air out of spontaneous joy. Stanislav Lobotka scored a goal – and the whole stadium understood that something special had just happened. Not only for the match, but also for the player himself.
“Stanislavoooo,” roared the announcer several times at the Diego Maradona stadium. And the people added it together: “Lobotka.”
A few tens of minutes later, the Slovakian representative received the official man of the match award. Almost all media and statistical portals gave him the highest grade of any player on the field. He played exactly as he is known in Napoli: reliable, calm, with a minimum of mistakes in passing. And this time he added something extra to it – the goal that decided.
He was unique and beautiful
Lobotka scored after 1,251 days, i.e. after more than three years. And he did it in style. Perfect coordination, a low volley from the edge of the penalty area and an accurate finish. In the 7th minute of the match against Sassuolo, he netted to give SSC Napoli a 1-0 victory in the 21st round of Serie A.
It was the only goal of the match. And he was beautiful. Volley shot from the edge of the box, without preparation, without hesitation. The moment that decided the evening and pushed the reigning Italian champions closer to the top of the table. Napoli has caught up with second-placed AC Milan, who have a game in hand, and are six points behind leaders Inter Milan.
However, Lobotka was not only the author of the decisive intervention. His numbers once again spoke of his total control of the game. He had a pass success rate of 96 percent, had 83 touches of the ball – the most of any player on the field. He determined the tempo of the match.
Third goal for SSC
“I’m very happy, I scored again after two years. We could have played better, but it’s okay. To win the title again? It’s going to be difficult, we still have a lot of games to play. Even if we play against less strong teams, it’s difficult. We have to play every game like a final,” he said after the meeting.
For Lobotka, it was the third goal in the SSC Napoli jersey, the third in Serie A and the first under coach Antonio Conte. And symbolically – all three were great. Not random tackles, but technically pure hits that highlighted his footballing intelligence.
VIDEO: Clip of the Napoli – Sassuolo match
The Italian media agreed.
“His shot was spectacular. It decided the match early on and gave him the joy of scoring in an Azzurri shirt after a three-and-a-half-year absence. Decisive,” Eurosport’s Di Stefano Fonsato wrote.
An exceptional player
“He last scored in Serie A in August 2022. Scoring goals is not his strong point, but if you add it to the thousands of other good things he does in every game, including today, he becomes an exceptional player,” tuttomercatoweb assessed.
“He controlled the ball much more than any of his teammates,” pointed out calcionapoli24.it.
“He scored a rare goal with a precise shot from outside the box. He controlled the pace of the game well,” added ilmessaggero.com.
“He scored a goal, but his work is always perfect,” confirmed iamnaples.it.
Festive shooter
It’s not his main role. And that’s why it carried so much weight. Stanislav Lobotka does not often decide matches with goals. But when his traditional precision, composure and ability to control the game are added to the decisive moment, it is a performance that will be deeply remembered in Napoli.
“He is a festive scorer,” described the Sport 1 commentator. He scored three goals while playing for AS Trenčín. He scored four times for the national team. He made his mark three times at the senior level, also in the jersey of Ajax Amsterdam.
“This extraordinary player does not have scoring goals among his key qualities, and this is perhaps what prevents him from becoming an absolute international superstar,” famous glossator Umberto Chiariello.
Lobotka arrived in Naples at the beginning of 2020, it is already his seventh season. He has already played 221 matches in the SSC jersey, 177 of them in Seria A.
