Lazio and Napoli played a goalless draw at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday evening. Mostly seen as the most high-profile game of the week in the Serie A, it turned a huge disappointment for fans of both clubs, as well as the neutral football lovers, alike.
The game
There’s very little to say about this game, and the first fact that should be mentioned is that there was a total of one – yes, one – shot on target between the two teams for the entire time span between the first and the final whistle. It belonged to Lazio as one of the sum of 10 they took, while Napoli had five attempts, all wide of the frame of the goal.
The visitors did end up with a notably greater possession percentage (61%), but it was the home side that arguably came closer to scoring. Their attempts mostly came down to long-range efforts, but the likes of Gustav Isaksen, Luis Alberto and Domenico Cataldi all should’ve done better from outside the box.
The first half was particularly uneventful, but the most interesting moment of the match happened straight after the break. Cataldi sent a long ball over the Napoli defence, and Valentin Castellanos, better known as “Taty”, made a run for it, received in on his chest, and produced a nicely measured overhead scissor-kick which beat Pierluigi Gollini in the Napoli goal and went in. However, Taty’s celebration of what would’ve been a spectacular goal was cut short as the offside flag rightly went up.
From that point on, there was a lot of rough foul play, and referee Daniele Orsato was forced to brandish the yellow card five times in total, even though he took an approach as lenient as possible to offenders from both teams.
As the match neared its end, Lazio pushed forward with a bit more determination and they managed to create a moment of chaos in Napoli’s box after a corner in the final minute of the stoppage time, but the visitors held on.
On the other hand, the closest Napoli came to scoring was a powerful volley by substitute Gianluca Gaetano in the 67th minute, and a free-kick from a favourable position, taken by Piotr Zielinski. Both shots went wide.
Depleted ranks
The only excuse, feeble as it is, for this underwhelming performance from both sides, is the fact that they had several extremely important players missing, particularly their respective attacking sections. Facing his former club, Lazio head coach Maurizio Sarri was without captain Ciro Immobile and winger Mattia Zaccagni.
Meanwhile, Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri had as many as nine players missing, starting with his main attacking stars Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, followed by his second-choice striker Giovanni Simeone, attacking midfielder Hamed Traore, central midfielders Frank Anguissa and Jens-Lys Cajuste, as well as defenders Natan and Mathias Olivera. Even goalkeeper Alex Meret was injured.
In such circumstances, Sarri made use of Felipe Anderson’s versatility to move him to the left flank, and deployed Isakson and Taty instead of Zaccagni and Immobile. Cataldi anchored the midfield, with Matteo Guendouzi running endlessly from one box to the other, and Alberto tasked with creativity which utterly failed on this occasion. Mario Gila paired up with Alessio Romagnoli at the back, flanked by Lazzari and Adam Marusic, and with Ivan Provedel in goal.
Mazzarri obviously put Gollini in goal instead of Meret, and the back three consisted of Leo Ostigard, Amir Rrahmani and Juan Jesus. In the absence of Anguissa, Diego Demme started alongside Stanislav Lobotka in the middle of the park, with Mario Rui and Giovanni Di Lorenzo as the wing-backs. With no Kvaratskhelia, Osimhen or Simeone, it was Giacomo Raspadori who led the attacking line, with Piotr Zielinski playing a bit further up and to the left than usual, and Mateo Politano offering support from wide positions.
From the bench, Luca Pellegrini, Matias Vecino, Pedro and Nicolo Rovella all got their chance for Lazio, to no avail, and as for Napoli, Mazzarri later turned to newcomers Cyril Ngonge and Leander Dendoncker, as well as Jesper Lindstrom, Pasquale Mazzocchi and Gaetano, also without effect.
Rankings and challenges to come
With the top three spots in the Serie A table already looking settled at this point, the race for the fourth and final that leads into the Champions League group stage will be an interesting one. Had Lazio won this game, as they probably expected to, they’d have been tied on points with Atalanta in fourth. As it is, they’re tied with Fiorentina in fifth on 34, sitting directly below due to a poorer goal-difference.
Bologna (33) and AS Roma (32) are in it as well, as are Napoli (32), and arguably Torino (31).
On Sunday, Lazio will travel to Bergamo for huge game, potentially vital in that race, where a win would move them above Atalanta and potentially set them up within the top four. Napoli have an easier job, at least on paper, hosting Hellas Verona at the Diego Armando Maradona, but after that, they go to Scudetto-chasing AC Milan, who cannot afford to drop any points at all if they want to catch up with Inter and Juventus.
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