The attacker in the 81st minute signs the goal that gives Spalletti’s team the eighth win out of 8
Here is the party, under the light of a splendid Neapolitan moon. The deejay who starts the music is Victor Osimhen, and Napoli slips the eighth wonder by signing the counter-pass to Milan at the top of the championship. Toro surrenders 1-0 in the final to the leaders, who in the meantime also equals the record of eight consecutive successes dating back to the time of Maurizio Sarri. Juric’s grenades come out with their heads held high from the examination of Maradona, after a competition of attention and containment, but they pay dearly for yet another final game and return home with the second consecutive defeat after the derby. Despite playing for long stretches without brilliance, Napoli still misses a penalty in the first half with Insigne, sees a goal canceled by Di Lorenzo from the Var and slams on the post with Lozano in the second half.
Neapolitan tears
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Ready go, and it’s immediately a blow to the heart. Because the first photograph of the night of Maradona relaunches the tears of the Turin midfielder, Rolando Mandragora, a Neapolitan from the Scampia district, on television screens all over the world (120 connected countries). It is the sixth minute, Mandragora tries a long throw but shortly after he collapses to the ground, one hand on his right knee (the one operated in June a year ago for the rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament) and the other on his face. Rolando’s game is already over, forced to go out in tears in front of a silent stadium. In its place, Juric throws into the fray the twenty-one year old Kone, product of the grenade nursery, who returned earlier this season from the loan to Cosenza: it is his debut in Serie A. A few minutes earlier, Spalletti and Juric had presented Napoli respectively with the trident Politano, Osimhen, Insigne, and Torino with Linetty and Brekalo behind a very tired Sanabria (and it shows, due to the commitments with his Paraguay).
distinguished, that you combine
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In the first half it is not a brilliant or spectacular Napoli, Toro signs a performance of maximum tactical attention, trying to limit mistakes. Sometimes he succeeds, others not: like on 25 ‘, when Kone lands Di Lorenzo and the referee Sacchi has no doubts in awarding the penalty for the Azzurri. Insigne kicks very badly from the spot, Milinkovic Savic is instead very attentive and manages to save in two halves. It goes on at a small trot, with the snatches of Osimhen (at 10 ‘: violent conclusion just a little on the crossbar; at 20’: he heads up on a cross from Di Lorenzo, still high). Toro retreats and defends itself, Napoli seems sly, suddenly accelerates but without breaking through. Far from its best nights. At half an hour the grenade reaction is in Brekalo’s shot, intercepted by Ospina. Insigne tries the round shot (42 ‘) but it is its more opaque version: it goes out when cornering. And at the end of the first half the thrill runs on Napoli’s back when Toro escapes on the counterattack but Sanabria does not frame the goal.
the var and the pole
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When we restart after the interval, the two technicians do not change any of the protagonists. And the game continues to offer the script of the first forty-five minutes: Napoli tries, but the tactical organization of the grenade manages to wrap the Azzurri. The certainties of Toro creak after ten minutes, when a free entry from Linetty gives Napoli a free kick from the left edge. On the developments, Di Lorenzo bags with his head (Djidji loses it) but the scream of Maradona is strangled in the throat after a very long check (lasted almost five minutes): the referee Sacchi cancels the advantage of Napoli for the offside position of Di Lorenzo. At this point, Spalletti plays the Lozano card (outside Politano). And the Mexican himself, on 18 ‘, is very close to scoring: his crossing is printed on the post. The game rises in tone, and Toro is there: because two minutes later Brekalo shows off the house specialty, dribbling, being face to face with Ospina called to sign a solving intervention.
belotti returns
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When the hour of play has recently passed, Juric changes his Taurus by resorting to fresh forces from the bench. At 21 ‘Andrea Belotti returns to the scene, who took the place of Sanabria: the Gallo is back fifty days after the injury on the second day in Florence. Also enter Buongiorno (for Rodriguez) and Pobega (for Linetty). But the most delicious ball still happens on the feet of Brekalo (25 ‘), who arrived in the race on Singo’s serve: he hooks, but does not frame the goal.
the power of osimhen
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This is the best moment of a compact and tidy Toro, and Spalletti senses that it is time to give a shock. And he tries with the entrances of Mertens (on return, for Zielinski) and Elmas (for Insigne). In the final part of the game, the grenades also appear with interesting ideas in the area manned by Koulibaly, but there is always an irresistible Osimhen to deal with. At 32 ‘it all comes from a combination of pure technique between the Nigerian and Mertens, then a rebound favors the back assist from Elmas on which Osimhen pounces with an elevation that has the prodigious: Milinkovic can do nothing, and the Maradona now he can explode (it’s his fifth league goal). In the final there is time for Juan and Warming (another Serie A debut), but it’s too late. And the last postcard from Maradona is given by the Neapolitan audience who sings and jumps for joy. In Naples you daydream.
October 17, 2021 (change October 17, 2021 | 20:14)
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