Napoli vs. Lecce 3-0

By: Neil | December 14th, 2008

Napoli’s attack finally came to life as the Partenopei created chance after chance against an overmatched Lecce on Saturday night. Denis and Hamsik both scored their seventh goals of the season and Pazienza scored his first ever goal in 130 Serie A appearances. When a defensive midfielder who didn’t even start the game gets his first Serie A goal, you know the offence is starting to click.

Somehow there weren’t any negatives from this game. Yes, Lavezzi got a booking and will miss the game against Torino. But he was going to miss a game eventually, and it’s probably better that he misses a game against a relegation candidate. Hamsik going off injured? It’s just a small muscle problem that’s not very serious. Denis missing a number of chances? We didn’t need him to get a hat trick this game. His missed chances actually show that he’s starting to adapt to the offence. The worst part was probably Rinaudo unnecessarily hacking someone down in the box, but even then we got a break and the ref goofed by not awarding a penalty. I’m going to overlook the fact that Santacroce was left out. I have no idea why this happened. The only thing I can suggest is that Reja is big on discipline, and maybe he felt Santacroce wasn’t training properly, or else there was some other kind of conflict. But anyone’s guess is as good as mine.

Highlights:

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Although Lecce was played right off the field, to their credit they came out fighting and gave Napoli a physical game. It’s interesting to see teams take different approaches playing Napoli at the San Paolo. Last week Siena came out conservatively, and tried playing a tactical game with the hope of snatching a draw. This week Lecce came out aggressively and tried to trade blows with a better team. You could argue that Siena’s approach was better – they held on to a 0-0 draw until the 62nd minute – but I prefer the Lecce approach. As Mario Beretta pointed out, if the ref correctly awarded the penalty for Rinaudo’s foul, it would have been a different game. In any case, both approaches failed, and I guess a visiting team has to hope that Napoli simply has an off day.

I don’t have too much else to add about this game. According to the Fox announcer, Napoli was “smelling blood” on offence. It’s always good to hear announcers talk about your team like that. It was also great to see Lavezzi take revenge after Gargano was shoved down a few seconds after making a pass. A team needs to show that it’s not going to get pushed around, especially at its home stadium. And Blasi showed composure after he was taken down from behind by Castillo shortly after. For me that was a red card for violent conduct – Castillo clearly intended to swing at Blasi’s legs. I can’t believe he wasn’t sent off.

Le Pagelle:

Iezzo – 6.5 good reliable game
Cannavaro – 6.5 played 88+ minutes with a yellow card
Rinaudo – 5.5 not quite good enough to be starting in the centre
Contini – 6.0 still first choice for left defence
Maggio – 7.0 caused problems for Lecce all night long
Blasi – 7.0 back to his best
Gargano – 6.5 all over the field as usual
Hamsik – 7.0 not the best penalty but kept his poise
Mannini – 6.0 subbed for the second straight game
Lavezzi – 7.5 an all-around champion
Denis – 7.0 starting to find his game

Subs – Pazienza 7.0, Aronica 6.5, Zalayeta n/a

Reja – 7.0 Napoli was well prepared for this game and answered every challenge

Next up is away to Torino, but without Lavezzi and Cannavaro. For all the talk of the Champions League, the Torino game will be a good indicator of where we are. A top 4 team should be able to win this game without two of its catalysts.