Napoli doesn't give up on Inter. But Bologna is on the horizon

The Azzurri beat Milan with a performance similar to the one shown by the league leaders against Udinese: next Monday the away match at Dall'Ara before a theoretically sweeter end to the calendar

di GIUSY ANNA MARIA D'ALESSIO
31 March 2025
Napoli-Milan, the Azzurri's exultation (Ansa)

Napoli-Milan, the Azzurri's exultation (Ansa)

Naples, March 31, 2025 - The timeline of the matches can give the perception that it was the Napoli to reply to theInter and his previous victory over theUdinese, but the situation could lend itself to another interpretation. Also analyzing the opponent of the day seen at Maradona, un Milan far from irresistible but still equipped with several talented players in the squad, and comparing it to the one that in the afternoon had visited the league leaders in San Siro, the impression is instead that the inertia of the day 30 di Serie A smiled on the Azzurri, despite the gap from the top of the rankings remaining unchanged (3 points). Therefore, in a hypothetical head-to-head balance at a distance that will likely drag on until the end of May, on Simone Inzaghi the check Antonio Conte, who finds some precious pawns coming out of the infirmary and, with them, a 4-3-3 that pays dividends right away. And right away is not just a figure of speech.  

First half super, while in the second half...

There wasn't even time to put the ball in the middle of the field before the Napoli, in fact, takes the lead with Matteo Politano, good at exploiting both the long line track of Giovanni Di Lorenzo both the glaring hole in the visitors' defence, which will suffer through central channels, in a similar action, also on the occasion of the doubling signed Romelu Lukaku, someone who always gets excited when he sees the red and blacks and this time he does it by also finding the much-desired round figure: 400 goal in his career, the last one very heavy also to send a message to himself, to the coach and to the inevitable critics who Big Rome he can score regardless of the formation and the presence of another attacker next to him. The one-two scored by Napoli al Milan, undefeated at Fuorigrotta from 2018, for a strip of 6 games, It seems deadly and in fact it is in the course of a first half without a story in which Maradona glimpses of excellent play can be seen which almost seemed to be the prelude to a goleada. Instead, as has already happened too many times this season, the Azzurri drop in distance, 'imitating' what was done by theInter against theUdinese, and leaving itself open to a recovery of a very different nature that ends up putting a success that seemed on ice in the balance. Credit also goes to Sergio Conceicao, who is heavily involved in the bench, correcting his own mistakes which had almost gifted the first half to his opponent, who was cautioned and given a warning and therefore in the stands next Monday at From the Ara. Rafael Leao gives verve, although as usual with mixed results, Santiago Jimenez from the penalty spot he is hypnotized by Alex Meret e Luka Jovic he scores the latter from zero meters on an assist from Theo Hernandez, who had earned the penalty following a foul by Philip Billing. In the end, the efforts of the Rossoneri were not enough to recover the situation, to everyone's delight: Tale and of his team, of the public of Maradona and also of the same Billing, whose entrance onto the pitch from the bench this time was of a diametrically opposite tone to the excellent one seen againstInterThis time the move fails for the Italian coach, who was already unlucky before the initial whistle when Scott McTominay had raised the white flag due to flu-like symptoms, sending the 4-4-2 apparently in the works for several days.

Bologna hub

The good news for Tale and for the Napoli is that in the end a decisive victory is saved to stay in the wake of theInter on the eve of what is perhaps the crucial turning point in the entire fight for the Scudetto. In the next round, in fact, the Azzurri will be guests of a Bologna fourth and returning from 5 wins in a row in general and that at From the Ara has only known how to win since the beginning of January. In short, a test in theory anything but easy after which for the Azzurri, always reasoning with the bowls still, the calendar will take a downhill path, with all the teams on the right side of the table on the horizon. In the next round also theInter will be on stage in Emilia but in Parma: a match, according to the rankings, which appears easier, but which in reality hides those pitfalls that even the Napoli when there will be teams hungry for salvation points in front of them. Therefore, the calendar and the rivals it proposes, with their relative lineage in the standings, mean everything and nothing and, speaking of the Azzurri, the lesson has already been taught between Verona, As an e Venice, three trips that were not impossible in theory and which brought in just under 1 point. And yet, despite the necessary premises and some reflections to be made on the trend, which has recently been common to the same Inter, to decline in the second half, the general impression is that the last real ditch in the Azzurri's path is the Bologna and From the Ara, a field often without half-measures, between victories of mammoth proportions and falls of equal weight. If the bad news for the band Tale this is the good news, the aforementioned ditch will also be common to Atalanta e Inter, among other things in a very close and very dangerous sequence for all parties involved. In the meantime, before thinking about the expedition to Emilia, the Salento coach can enjoy a victory of the Napoli just in style Tale: quality when needed, even if only in flashes, but also a lot of quantity, and that ability to hold out in difficult moments typical of the so-called great teams. It's difficult to say today, with 8 days still to play, if all this will be enough to bring the championship back to the Campania capital after just 2 years but, just like from Tale thought, to stop believing right now would be crazy. Of course, going back to winning at Maradona is not enough to heal every wound, as already emerged after the previous success (in turn for 2-1 and always with a falling ending) against the Fiorentina, which would have been followed by the painful braking of Venice, but in the meantime the medicine called three points is always the right one.

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