Napoli pressed Juventus in a fierce fight
The list of Sunday’s fierce confrontations could not be imagined without the participation of Italian teams in it. As part of the twenty-seventh round of Serie A at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, the reigning champion Napoli of Naples was preparing to host one of the main contenders for the title at the end of the current campaign, Juventus of Turin. Although, as for the contenders, this is if Inter Milan is willing to share the first place, which is not currently the case.
In addition, the “southerners” unsuccessfully visited the north of the country at the end of last year (0: 1), so they wanted to take revenge during their home game. And if this meeting had taken place a week ago, we would have been talking about teams with long series of matches without victories. But instead, each of them won the last round, even if 6-1 against Sassuolo looked much brighter for Francesco Calzona’s players than 3-2 against Frosinone from Massimiliano Allegri’s men.
What was the mindset of the teams
The beginning of the reporting match at the online soccer betting sites was quite interesting, as neither team was willing to give up the initiative in attacking, so the ball was freely moving between the penalty areas. Juventus were the first to try their hand at creating a goal-scoring opportunity, and Vlahovic, following a Chiesa cross from the right flank, dangerously headed past the near post.
Juventus continued to try to maintain the pressure, but did so in a very peculiar way, using an excessive number of small fouls, which eventually bored the referee so much that he began to show the first warnings. The guests did not react in time, so they got extra yellow cards.
Meanwhile, Napoli gradually pushed them further away from their own goal, and eventually began to create their own scoring chances, such as a chance for Di Lorenzo or Politano, but they either missed the target or tested Szczesny’s reaction with their shots. And soon after, during a counterattack, Vlahovic exploded on the left flank of the penalty area with a ball over the goalkeeper, but hit the right post of the opposition goal.
Crucial moment of the match
The Zebras showed that they didn’t want to stop there, but their position was severely undermined by the missed goal. In the 43rd minute, Bremer took Di Lorenzo’s cross from the right wing over the goalkeeper’s goal, but only passed the ball to the far side of his own possession, right to the foot of Kvaratskhelia, who opened the scoring just before the break.
The goal sent Juventus into the dressing room so much that they returned to the game immediately with a goal-scoring chance for Cambiase on the right edge of the penalty area, but at the crucial moment the defender shot over the top. Napoli then managed to slow down the pace of the opponents’ attacks, but not so much that they had a reason to abandon them altogether.
Juve put pressure on the opposition’s possession, although they had almost no opportunities to equalise, rotated, and eventually, in the 81st minute, Chiesa sent a low shot from the right corner of the penalty area just under the far post. “The Zebras immediately ran for the second goal, but ran into defensive problems instead.
In the 76th minute, Allegri gave young Nonge the opportunity to play a little football, and he thanked the coach with a penalty kick against Turin, which was awarded after a VAR review of an episode involving Osimhen in a fight with Bremer in the centre of the penalty area. In the end, Victor wanted to take an eleven-yarder himself, but Szczesny hasn’t missed from the spot this season either. But Raspadori instantly appeared on the finish and put Napoli ahead again.
The final minutes were very hot, as the Turin side had chances to save themselves and very good ones at that. All that remained was to start scoring, but they had significant problems with that, and in the end, Rugani’s final miss from close range eloquently summed up the game for the visitors.
