Barcelona steal a win over Celta. What a BS win for them. 2 cracks at the penalty after the 1st was saved. If keepers are forced to keep a toe a on the line, then I think they should ban run-ups for penalties. The hop and skip is lame AF too.
They play like a proper top team when on the ball, but have major defensive issues with reoccurring individual errors. Their front 3 is also hit and miss from game to game. I think they will dominate the game due to their midfield and the infrastructure around it. Napoli will have to play at their best and utilise the counters Barcelona most likely will give away. Barcelona is a team that leaves space and Napoli is a team equipped with players that can masterfully exploit such conditions. Unfortunately for Napoli three of these players are gone, either literally or mentally (lozano, zielinski and osimhen).
Osi is a true team player. I hope he shows up for this, but his form hasn't been great lately. The great shame is if this was the Napoli of last season, I'd have said we could have destroyed Barca. We are a shell of that team. I do agree many look checked out already.
Shush. Just eliminate those lispy lever pullers and be done with it. If this was last season PRIOR to that last 7 matches where the fall actually began, Napoli would have beat Bar-caca 3,4-nil in each leg.
I agree that Osimhen has had an amazing spirit about him throughout his Napoli career, something I'm really missing from many of his teammates at Napoli, but what's the insights of him missing the Genoa game? He messed up his flight tickets? At a moment when Napoli really needed him. As far as I'm aware he is not injured, just fatigued. He could have come on in the second half if he felt too fatigued to start. It's no secret I never was his biggest fan as a player, but I'm not blind to his importance for this team, especially now given what Simeone and Raspadori has been showing in his absense. Right now he is Napoli's best forward by a country mile - the other 2 are handing performances where they don't even deserve to be vice-Osimhens.
Footballing-wise, this was the correct decision. He hadn't been with team for over a month. Plus with European commitments, it made all the more sense to have him for Barcelona. In fact, even had AFCON not taken place, he probably would have sat out Genoa and been saved for Barca.
I have no idea what to expect today. Home game against Barca with a new coach. It'd be a good time for a dead cat bounce.
Politano tried but was ineffective. Let's see what Raspadori can do. Lidstrom has done well. Kvara another stinker. He's been found out. A real shame.
Best stretch of match (only good stretch of the match) by Napoli. Calzona with the correct subs, IMO.
Not much to watch there, but we have at least managed to let hope live. Osimhen has got it all, he is tall, but fast and strong on the ball. His ability to control a difficult air pass and still cover the ball is impressive. It is safe to say that without him, we would have been infertile again. Now we have gained some time to see the fruits of Calzona's labor, and still hope for some bright moments to come.
Lindstrøm just let slip that Napoli for the first time since he joined are trying to win the ball high up the pitch. WTH was adl on when he hired Garcia and Mazzarri?!! He also said that Napoli's biggest problem was winning the ball too far away from the opponent's goal. Sometimes when one player says this it could be something the players talk about in the dressing rooms. If this is to be true it's incredible to think our players had to go through these two managers since the season started. Does ADL have any idea what kind of playstyle the players want to play?
Lindstrom showed some of his quality today. I hope he can build off today's performance. Agreed that we showed more of a desire to win the ball high, but we still hesitated to press them and we looked clueless at times at the back both on and off the ball. I think players are still getting to grips with Calzona's system. Only Lobotka looked like he knew what needed to be done. The goal happened after Oliveira stepped up to win the ball past the center-line and then he ran into a forward position to occupy a defender. He played a big role in making the goal happen. We were a bit fortunate the guy marking Osimhen didn't know how to defend. He must be used to things in La Liga where you complain about getting fouled when tripping over yourself and the ref gives the call. He got a yellow for not realizing this is the UCL. Dumbsumabitch. In any case, Barca had the better of the game and Lewy is lethal enough he barely needs a look at goal to score. Shame we fell so flat today. Kvara was no match for Kounde and that Uruguayan CB whose name I'm too lazy to google. He needs toughening up. Maradona would have torn them to shreds because he wasn't just a great dribbler, he was tough as nails. We really need more from him because the talent is there.
I think it's hard to blame kvara today because there were two Napoli teams out there last night: The one with Cajuste as number 10; this team stood deep and clearly the plan here was to not concede a goal and play deep. Every time kvara got the ball it was with his back to goal and from a deep position. Then Traore came on for cajuste and Napoli shifted to high pressure and were more aggressive meaning the offensive players would get the ball in much more dangerous positions. Kvicha came off along with cajuste when traore and Lindstrom came on. I dont mind kvaras performance, I thought it was decent, given his poor circumstances. Every time we panic passed him the ball he managed to hold on to it despite being man marked by the most expensive defender in la liga history if I'm not mistaken The only regret was that Osimhen had to be taken off... for freaking simeone
I'm gonna pull a @Rossonero23 and wait until we win to talk shit about Barca. Until then, Barca are good team. We respect them.