Mazzarri searches for Napoli praise

Walter Mazzarri is eager to rest and relax after Napoli’s ‘stratospheric’ Serie A campaign culminated with a 2-2 draw at Juventus on Sunday.

Goals from Christian Maggio and Cristiano Lucarelli twice put the visitors ahead, but Juventus pegged them back with second-half goals from Giorgio Chiellini and Alessandro Matri to take a share of the honours on the final day of the season.

The result was a moot point for Mazzarri and his squad, who had already secured third place on the Italian table and a Champions League berth next season.

But the manager was still delighted with the final-day showing, praising his troops for finishing off the season in the right fashion after securing their first trip to Europe’s top-tier competition in 17 years.

Asked to describe the game and Napoli’s season in general, Mazzari said: “I cannot find the right adjective. I would say stratospheric.”

“A champion such as (Juve goalkeeper) Gianluigi Buffon didn’t allow Ezequiel Lavezzi to score. We broke so many records, we played an historical season, and we missed the record number of victories due to a great save by a great goalkeeper.”

“What do you want me to say? I’m happy. Now I’ll enjoy my holidays because it has been a stressful season, a very long one.”

“If I’m not wrong, we played 50 games and we aren’t used to that, not having that much international experience. We were in two competitions until February.”

On-loan Parma striker Lucarelli, who picked up his first goal for the Old Lady in the 70th minute, was thrilled to have played a hand in the draw with Juventus and said he hoped to squeeze one more campaign out of his aging body.

“It’s very satisfying because it’s always pleasing to score a goal against such a great goalkeeper,” said the veteran, whose stint at Napoli is his tenth at an Italian club.

“It’s always pleasing to score against Juventus because they are a great team, even if gaining points wasn’t so important in this game.”

“I think it was a great match. We were calm and enjoyed playing a lot. It’s a pity that we drew 2-2 in the end – it would have been good to leave Turin with three points, but that’s okay.”

“With the (knee) injury at the beginning of the season I haven’t played that much this year, so I definitely want to play another year to close out my career.”

“I’m satisfied with my career; it’s a pity I came to play for a great team only when I was 35 years old.”