“It’s A Great Stadium To Play Football”

By: Neil | April 26th, 2009

Napoli 1-0 Inter
If there’s one stadium in the world that can leave Jose Mourinho baffled and confused, it’s the San Paolo. The tenants put on a second half clinic to leave Mourinho and his players disappointed, emotional, and flat out bewildered. If you didn’t follow football at all, and started watching just after Zalayeta entered, you might think he’s one of the elite players in the world. His 73rd minute cracker, set up beautifully by Lavezzi, deflated the nerazzurri and gave the Partenopei another famous home victory. Following the goal, Napoli turned it up for the last fifteen minutes and were playing keep away from the best team in Serie A.

In the post-match interviews, Donadoni showed the restrained attitude you need by pointing out that there are still a lot of problems that have to be worked out. I would describe this game as shockingly good. After going 14 matches without a win, I was not expecting this. If Napoli had only played half as well in previous games, the winless streak would have been snapped some time ago.

Jose Mourinho gave his usual well thought out comments This game seems to have left him perplexed, as his quotes are a little stranger than usual. My favourite is when he says that the game could have been played withough goalkeepers. That’s classic Mourinho – it’s his way of coming to terms with barely any scoring chances by both sides.

What made Inter look like an average team? Well, the absences of Muntari and Maicon hurt. Having one of those players out is bad enough, but Inter could not attack down the wings as they usually do. Part of the credit has to go to Napoli, but if Inter had their full starting lineup it would have been much more difficult. Inter’s strikers also struggled. Balotetlli has to figure out how to stand up for himself without getting into trouble. He’s made himself into a target by reacting to the slightest provocation. Teams are going to try and play head games with him because it’s much easier than defending his talent. I think Mourinho should have subbed him in the second half because he wasn’t mentally focussed and stopped being as effective as he was in the first half. Santacroce was the role model that game for how to dominate physically without getting into off the ball conflict. I have to steal one of Vincent’s comments and give it a wider audience – when Santacroce takes off his shorts, Balotelli is going to fall out of his pocket. Ibra also struggled the closer he got to the Napoli goal line. I know there’s a theory that Ibra doesn’t play well in big games, but I don’t buy it. He didn’t have a bad game, but not a great one either.

On the Napoli side our goalkeeping and our defence were the backbone of the team today. So much for my preview about how Napoli’s defence is thin and needs reinforcements. Contini looked much better than he usually does. I don’t know if it’s because he was in the middle or because it was a big game. Aronica was very good, and Santacroce should be starting for Italy. All three played up to their potential today, and if we had that kind of defending every week our league position would be much better.

Highlights – the Solo Napoli commentator gets even more hysterical than usual when Zalayeta scores:

As a special bonus I’m going to include a lengthy interview with Mourhinho.

Donadoni also deserves lots of credit. The entire team played well, it wasn’t a case of a few individuals putting in brilliant performances. When the whole team is clicking, you know the manager did his job in preparing the team. Don also got his substitutions spot on – Zalayeta scores ten minutes after coming on, and Datolo picked up a tired and possibly injured Lavezzi. The Bogliacino sub was a classic time waster, but since four minutes were added on I don’t know if it succeeded in wasting any time.

Le Pagelle:

Navarro: 7.0 His save on the Samuel header was just as valuable as a goal
Santacroce: 7.5 Dominated the right hand side yet again
Contini: 7.0 Looked more comfortable in the centre than on the left
Aronica: 6.5 Worked hard all game long and didn’t make a major error
Montervino: 6.5 Great leadership in Canna’s absence
Blasi: 7.0 Brilliant in shutting down Stankovic
Amodio: 6.0 Weak first half, but did his job in the second half
Hamsik: 6.0 Average game from the Slovak
Mannini: 6.5 Struggled offensively, but fought hard all game
Lavezzi: 7.0 Showed his class to set up Zalayeta
Denis: 6.0 Isolated much of the time

Subs: Zalayeta 7.0, Datolo 6.5, Bogliacino N/A

Donadoni: 7.5 The game plan and substitutions worked beautifully

Next up is away to Siena. I have no idea what to expect next game – Napoli has been inconsistent. It would be great to see a repeat performance, but too many times this season Napoli has played to the level of our opponents. It works great against Inter, but not so well against teams in the bottom half of the table.

There should be lots of news development in the next few days, including more transfer rumours. I’ll do the usual midweek update when there’s enough for a decent sized post.