Totally agree. And honestly did Napoli actually play horrible against Real Madrid? Seriously, Real Madrid have better quality all around and you really cannot compare the teams on paper, but I think a loss by one goal at home was not bad, and that third goal that Real scored was very lucky. Great goal, but complete luck. In the second game they lost by 2 goals, but I feel like losing by 2 goals to Madrid away for a team like Napoli is not a bad result. Most teams probably would lose by 2 goals to Madrid away, with the talent and form that they're in right now.
Some here are surely playing some sort of reverse jinx act pretending you have no chance against Barca. Xavi has just announced an hour ago that he is stepping down after the season as the team are struggling to get Results. Incidentally their match was being broadcast here and heard the background noise of them going ahead 3-2. Villarreal then scored 3 goals to win it 3-5. Lewandowski pretty much criticizing Xavi, reports of a troubled Dressing Room. If Napoli gets their collective heads out their backsides, they will win this tie.
Lewy is done at Barca. Barca still scored 3 goals against Villarreal and currently sit third in Spain. They have players like Ferran, Felix, Gundogan, Pedri, etc. I'd love to win a game against them, and maybe we win well, but the reality is Barca are a better side and should get past us at ease. We are not the team we were last season. We are in the shit with Roma. C'est la vie. We are 9th place. Kvara and Osi are not playing well. Osi can't even turn it on for Nigeria. We now play with 3 CBs. We had zero shots on target today, despite keeping 2/3rds of the possession. I doubt we beat out Atalanta, Fiorentina, Bologna, and Lazio for top 6, which I'd be happy about. No European commitments next season means the new manager will have more time to train with the players.
Serie A is a much tougher league than La Liga. I would say Real Madrid is probably better than any Serie A team (even Inter by a bit on paper at least). However, besides Real, they don’t have many other strong teams. Real Sociedad, Atletico, and Barcelona aren’t to be underestimated but the latter two are shadows of what they used to be. Sevilla and Villarreal are having pretty terrible seasons for their standards as well.
I’ve been pretty impressed with Girona this season, and while not to take anything away from them, I do feel like their success is also do to other teams having bad seasons besides Real Madrid. Kind of like Leicester City in 2015-16.
Not to split hairs but much tougher is a stretch. If at all. Recently (like last week) IFFHS came out and ranked Serie A as tops worldwide. Didn't bother reading their criteria. I'm sure putting a Finalist in all 3 Club competitions had a lot to do with it, Milan in SF, Napoli as League winners. But I do believe UEFA Coefficients rate La Liga higher and EPL even much higher still.
In the current season's points race, Serie A is the top league, and last year we were only behind England. Still behind Spain using the five year rolling tally though.
EPL is probably tougher all around honestly, especially when you compare the lower table teams in EPL vs lower table teams in Serie A! La Liga used to be very tough and a harder league but that was ages ago when Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico were all Top 5 best teams in the world, with Sevilla and Villarreal also very tough to beat. Athletic Club and Malaga also caused some upsets on occasion as well during that time. But those days are long over.
All that to say, even during the tough days of La Liga dominance, I still feel that the bottom half table teams in La Liga were not as competitive as the bottom half in Serie A. There are NO UEFA competitions to test that though, so it’s not completely easy to tell.
How can a club that was the biggest, attracted glory-seekers from all over the world, including pedantic evil ones from Ireland be so much in debt? I just lol at the term "pull an economic lever". I remember a few years ago when Colosimo put a YouTube compilation of Destiny Udogie after Udinese sold him to Tottenham, Barcelona issued a Copyright strike on that video, LOL. It literally had absolutely NO footage of Barcelona. Unless the cules (appropriately named) can somehow explain when they ever played Verona or Udinese, LOL. ZERO SHAME OF A CLUB. Hustling for money when they have nothing to do with his video. Which other club has ever done this? FORZA NAPOLI. I hope you smash them.
According to these odds on the right side of golazos chat show, Napoli is tenth most likely to win the CL this year behind city, bayern, Madrid, Arsenal, psg, barca, inter, atletico, and dortmund. Miraculously that puts us ahead of six teams.
Madrid fans are laughing at Bayern for losing to Lazio, but watching the highlight package it looks like some poor finishing combined with a major act of ref in the 70th minute. They'll probably put up a better performance in Munich.
Anyone believe we can finally score a historic win over Barca a week from now? Now or never, really. Need a big performance from Osi.
The last time Osi played for Napoli was December 23rd. He didn't show up today so he won't be playing against Genoa. Two full months out of the shirt, 15th missed game of the season, 58 in four years. I think by the time he leaves, the bloom will be well off the rose, and the locals will have mixed feelings at best.
Lewy with a great goal against Celta just before the half. Barca will be tough to beat based on what I've seen so far.