If a dominant AC Milan and a patient Juventus keep the pace imposed by Inter, the Neapolitan champion collapsed on Sunday during the 19th day of Serie A.
The third Italian championship title, won last spring, is already a very distant memory for Naples which, since August, has continued to plummet, mirroring its rout (3-0) on the field of Torino, Sunday. To start 2024 and finish the first leg of the 2023/2024 season, Naples hoped to return to victory, but the reigning champion who, a year ago, was prancing at the top of Serie A, fell (again) from a height and conceded their fourth defeat in their last six matches. Deprived of their Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen, selected for the African Cup of Nations, Naples has not scored in the league since December 16.
Nothing happened in this match for Walter Mazzarri, relegated to the stands after his exclusion last weekend against Monza (0-0), and his team. The Neapolitans, also deprived of their No. 1 goalkeeper Alex Meret, injured, nevertheless started the match well and dominated, but Giacomo Raspadori, alone in front of the goal, shot at the Torino goalkeeper (25th). Just before the break and against the run of play, Antonio Sanabria opened the scoring (43rd).
Mazzocchi expelled, Mazzarri confirmed
Returning from the locker room, a sign of the nervousness reigning in the Neapolitan squad, Pasquale Mazzocchi, who arrived this week from Salernitana, was excluded from his first match in the azure jersey, only four minutes after coming into play! In the wake of this exclusion, Nikola Vlasic (52nd) doubled the lead, then Alessandro Buongiorno added a third goal (66th) to inflict a seventh defeat on Napoli in the league this season.
After this setback, combined with Lazio’s victory at the same time against Udinese (2-1), Naples fell to 9th place (28 pts), twenty points behind the leader, Inter Milan, and five lengths from 4th place, qualifying for the Champions League and held today by Fiorentina (33 pts), which lost on Saturday at Sassuolo (1-0) and failed to distance itself from 5th , Bologna (32 pts), held in check on Friday by Genoa.
At the end of the match, the Neapolitans remained in their locker room for more than 30 minutes for “a long discussion, the content of which we do not want to reveal,” explained Napoli sporting director Mauro Meluso. “It was a bad match, we must apologize to our supporters. Our team is unrecognizable, we must find solutions to get them back to their game,” he regretted.
“Our coach retains the total confidence of the club,” nevertheless insisted the manager, while the meeting was followed in the stands by the former Italian coach, Antonio Conte, whom the president of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentiis, had approached in October to succeed Rudi Garcia.
AC Milan finally wins away
In the title race, it’s the status quo: the day after Inter’s laborious victory (2-1 against Verona), Juventus and AC Milan also won. Juve, however, suffered against the red lantern, Salernitana, whom they had humiliated three days earlier (6-1) in the Italian Cup.
Deprived of Federico Chiesa, the Bianconeri were led 1-0 on a goal from Giulio Maggiore (39th). His exclusion for a second warning at the start of the second period allowed Juve to equalize through Samuel Iling (65th). Massimiliano Allegri’s players had to wait for added time and a header from Dusan Vlahovic (90+1) to take the advantage.
They thus came back to within two points of Inter and remain seven points ahead of AC Milan, who consolidated their third place by signing their first away success in three months at Empoli 3- 0, thanks to Ruben Loftus-Cheek (11th), Olivier Giroud, author of his ninth goal of the season from the penalty spot (31st), the first since November 11, and Chaka Traoré (88th).
“We played a very good match, with a lot of desire and pleasure on the pitch playing together,” said Milan coach Stefano Pioli. Our return phase must be much better than the outward journey. We had a difficult period where we lost a certain number of points, but this negative period is behind us. There is still enough time ahead of us for this season to be positive. Not sure that the Neapolitans can say the same.
2024-01-08 04:28:47
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