Naples, reigning Italian champion, was eliminated as soon as it entered the fray in the round of 16 of the Italian Cup in front of its home crowd by Frosinone 0-4 on Tuesday.
Even before the end of 2023, seven months after its third Italian championship title at the end of an extraordinary season, Napoli already knows that it will most likely end 2023-24 empty-handed, in any case in national competitions.
Left behind in the league (5th), 14 points behind Inter, Naples, who will face Bayern Munich in the round of 16 of the Champions League in February and March, bit the dust in “Italian Cup“.
His trainer Walter Mazzarri had chosen to rotate its squad, leaving most of its starters on the bench.
But it is paradoxically from the hour mark when his scorers Victor Osimhen et Khvicha Kvaratskhelia entered the field as Napoli foundered.
Enzo Barrenechea opened the scoring by surprising the Neapolitan defense from a corner (65th). Five minutes later, Giuseppe Casoleft on the counter following a big mistake by the captain Giovanni Di Lorenzodoubled the bet.
In added time, Frosinone added two goals, including one from the penalty spot caused by Di Lorenzo, to validate its qualification for the first time in its history in the quarter-finals of the event.
In the next round, the Lazio club, which has been playing in Serie A since 2022, will face the winner of the duel between Juventus Turin and Salernitana on January 4.
The Naples players, jeered by the spectators at the Diego-Armando-Maradona stadium even before the final whistle, have still not managed to string together three victories in a row this season.
Worse, they conceded their sixth defeat at home, in all competitions.
2023-12-19 22:43:01
#Naples #humiliated #Frosinone #Italian #Cup
