Napoli and Fiorentina, Sunday to forget with Udinese and Verona
Brutal defeat for Napoli, which instead of taking advantage of Milan’s home draw against Sassuolo lost 1-0 on the Udinese field. A heavy misstep for Antonio Conte’s team, which fails to leap to the top of the standings and instead ends up favoring Inter in the race to the top. The first half flows on low rhythms and with few emotions. Udinese approached the match better, but as the minutes went by Napoli took the field and made themselves dangerous: Bertola was decisive in blocking Lang, while Okoye confidently opposed Hojlund’s attempt. The Friulians, however, did not give up attacking, and on the half-hour mark they engaged Milinkovic-Savic with an Ekkelenkamp conclusion, which was repelled without difficulty by the blue goalkeeper.
In the second half, the script remains similar, but Udinese raise the level and find the goal in the 52nd minute with Davis, but the goal is then annulled by VAR for offside by the striker on Bertola’s shot. The Bianconeri continued to push: in the 59th minute Piotrowski hit the crossbar with a powerful right-footed shot, while in the 69th minute another goal, signed by Zaniolo, was cancelled out due to a foul by Karlstrom on Lobotka. The lead, however, is only postponed. In the 73rd minute Ekkelenkamp invents the decisive play, letting off a precise and violent right-footer from the left that leaves Milinkovic-Savic no chance and makes the Bluenergy Stadium explode. In the final Napoli tries a desperate assault: Hojlund clamorously wastes from a few steps and, shortly after, Lucca hits the outside post. It was not enough: Udinese defended the result and won three precious points, while Napoli came out downsized from a bitter evening.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo commented warmly as follows: “What was missing and how do I explain the defeat? We knew it would be tricky, they are physical and we were ready to face them in duels. We did not succeed, they are well and healthy. Sorry for the defeat becausewe wanted to play a different kind of game. What to start again from? These are games decided by an episode. They found a eurogoal and from there the game changed, however, the team never disunited in the hunt for the equalizer. Too bad for the Hojlund opportunity, but we take home the desire to have never given up and tried until the end. Now we focus on the Super Cup which is worth a trophy and we will have to do well. Difficulties on the road? I don’t know, for sure playing with your own public gives you an extra push, but we are professionals. In the league we must not give up, there are so many teams within a few points. It’s going to be a complicated championship and even a point can make a difference, even today it would have boosted morale and we have to work on that. Is this the stadium of the third championship? It is past now, but coming back here and reliving those emotions is very nice”.
If possible, it went even worse for Fiorentina, which wasted yet another opportunity to relaunch itself in the salvation race and sank further in the standings. The violets came out defeated in the very delicate direct clash against Hellas Verona, which won 2-1 in a comeback thanks to Gift Orban’s decisive double in the dying minutes.
A very heavy knockout for Vanoli’s team, which slips eight lengths from the third-last place and sees the specter of relegation rekindled in a worrying way. On the contrary, the success restores oxygen and confidence to Hellas, which climbs to 12 points and can return to hope for salvation.
