Napoli 2 Palermo 1: Zalayeta Comedy Goal Wins It

By: Neil | September 25th, 2008

There’s just something funny about the way Marcelo Zalayeta plays. At times he’s slow and lumbering, other times he’s quick and powerful. He can put in an inspired and dominant performance, or he can be half asleep. His 75th minute goal was the winner as Napoli defeated Palermo 2-1 at the San Paolo on Wednesday night. With the victory Napoli continue their impressive start to the season, leapfrogging Palermo in the standings. The Partenopei are now in fourth place, just two points behind leaders Inter.

It wasn’t easy though. Midway through the second half I had a hard time figuring out which was more choppy: the live feed I was watching that kept giving out, but somehow got the job done, or Napoli’s three man backline, which kept giving me heart attacks but somehow got the job done. Napoli were also helped by the fact that Palermo was never decisive with their final ball. Although the Sicilians played a good game and did a lot of things well, they were fortunate to get on the scoresheet thanks to a penalty from Miccoli in the 83rd minute.

Napoli opened the scoring in the 13th minute as Zalayeta and Maggio combined well down the right wing to set up Hamsik for a tap in. It was the Slovak’s third goal of the season, placing him one goal behind Milito and Zarate for the Serie A lead. Palermo spent the rest of the match trying to generate offence and managed to control the game for large chunks, but could only create half chances that ended up being wasted. Zalayeta’s comical goal, which most Primavera strikers would have scored on the first try, secured the three points for Napoli. The fact that he scored the goal with a flick of his leg while sitting on his ass demonstrates just how entertaining he can be.

Here are the match highlights: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLtfqwpANdw

Concerns for Napoli: the defence held up, but was shaky. On another night a sharper attacking team could have done much more damange. Too often our defenders just cleared the ball right to Palermo’s end, allowing them to start a fresh attack. Those kind of powerful clearances look impressive, but they really play into the other team’s hands by just giving them the ball.

Positives: Pretty much everything else. Iezzo showed why Navarro and Gianello can’t win the starter’s jersey, our midfield was solid as usual, and our strikers competed well. Overall Zalayeta was a bit rusty, but he did some nice work defensively – which is unusual for him – and got some of his confidence back with the ~~well taken~~ important goal.

With each match review I will try to offer up my version of ‘le pagelle’ for Napoli’s players, but the unstable feed made watching the game a bit difficult and I will pass on numerical evaluations. Man of the Match goes to Marek Hamsik. It’s easy to see why every big club in Europe wants him.

If you saw things differently, please leave your comments below. Questions for discussion: Was the Napoli you saw last night good enough to qualify for the Champions League? Do you feel comfortable with both Contini and Aronica starting in a three man defence? I’ll be back on Saturday with a preview of Napoli’s trip to the Dall’Ara.