Mazzarri takes lucky result

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri was happy with their 2-1 victory over Parma on Sunday, despite the somewhat fortunate nature of the win.

Napoli struggled for large parts of the match at the Stadio Ennio Tardini, and things looked headed for a draw when Parma’s Cristian Zaccardo scored in the 77th minute to cancel out Edinson Cavani’s first-half opener.

But Ezequiel Lavezzi’s strike in the 86th minute secured all three points for Mazzarri’s men, pulling them within three points of fourth-placed Udinese.

Mazzarri feels the mid-week international break played a part in his team’s lacklustre performance.

“Today we haven’t been free,” he said.

“My team hasn’t behaved in the usual way today. It is understandable, since in the only week available to recover from the Champions League or the TIM Cup (Coppa Italia), the players went to play with their national teams.”

“I haven’t been able to take the usual training sessions. For example I’ve only saw (Camilo) Zuniga yesterday and I’ve been only seen the bigger part of my team in the last few days. ”

“Parma were in better condition. When the score was 1-0 we had to send the ball into the area, but we conceded a corner kick to Parma, which was already causing us difficulties. At that point I got angry.”

“I understand that sometimes the players can’t be in top condition because of a number of different reasons, but they should have the experience and the ability to understand that in some cases it’s better to send the ball back and suffer, like the big teams do, in order to achieve the best results.”

Mazzarri said he was unsure of the effect Chelsea’s sacking of manager Andre Villas-Boas would have on the second-leg of their Champions League round-of-16 encounter, but was sure it will not help his team.

“I’m sorry Villas-Boas has been sacked,” he said.

“I know him and we had the chance to talk at the end of the match (first leg). He is a smart guy, so I’m sorry for him.”

“We’ll see what happens to the team. When there is a manager change, there are usually difficulties, but their players are champions and they could be able to play the perfect match as a result of new and strong motivations. This isn’t surely an advantage for us.”

Napoli have a 3-1 lead to take into the second leg, to be played on March 14 at Stamford Bridge.