Napoli, the draw of regrets. And Conte's management is not convincing

Naples, 3 February 2025 - This time not even the war machine built in record time by Antonio Conte manages to disprove the law of a Olympic returned a fortress for the Roma. If this is the (first) bad news, with the streak of consecutive victories that stops at 7, the good thing is that the same system of the Capital he is unable to fully exploit his positive impact on the Giallorossi, who are coming off a 7 consecutive successes at home, between the championship and Europa League, with just 3 goals conceded and well 23 made: the league leaders arrive and the magic is broken, as he had already experienced la Juventus the week before losing the unbeaten run in Serie A al Maradona. Yet, this time the same leader had to accept a bit of a disappointment when Angelino in full recovery he equalised the previous goal of the former signed by Leonardo Spinazzola, for a 1-1 probably right in light of the efforts made on the pitch by the two teams but still with a bittersweet taste for the Napoli, who with a quiet performance threw away the good news that had arrived in the meantime from Meazza.  

The evening of regrets

Even the derby of Milan it had previously closed on the same score, with theInter who in turn had found the goal in the Cesarini zone with Stefan De Vrij useful to avoid a bloody defeat and perhaps also undeserved for the many chances created and well photographed by the three woodwork hit. At the triple whistle, not by chance, someone was already talking about a 'long-distance victory' by Tale and Napoli, which in front of a Roma weakened by European commitments and with a large turnover in sight they would have had a great chance to really extend their lead in the standings and therefore no longer just virtually for that asterisk linked to the recovery of the match between Fiorentina e Inter, scheduled for next Thursday. In fact, the outline of the match seemed to be exactly this: the Azzurri more in control of the field and good, as often happened this season, at capitalising on the first of the few occasions created. Scores Spinazzola, the ex on duty last summer 'dumped' by the Roma and arrived at zero at Napoli as the first shot of the summer of the revolution, and he also scores in a way that is anything but banal. Between their own demerits and the merits of others, the Azzurri do not do much to go beyond the hypothetical victory of 'short face', another constant in the championship, and this time the calculations of maximum yield with minimum expense do not work out when Angelino a diagonal is struck that leaves the situation unchanged between the top two in the class in terms of gaps. In theory, in these cases, the team that is ahead is always the one smiling the most, which with one less match on the horizon keeps its nest egg of points intact. In practice, the situation, thanks to the one less match that will weigh on the standings from now until Thursday,Inter, is a little different. Not only that: thinking back a little to the famous starting grids of the summer, by all accounts the squad of the reigning champions is more structured than that of the Azzurri, for a gap that has been well hidden so far but that could re-emerge in the future, at the key moment of the season, despite a team still playing in Champions League and another one this year has never played the European cups. Here we come to another point raised by the match of theOlympic. Despite a full week of work, for some an advantage in the economy of the fight for the Scudetto, the physical condition of the Napoli at one point in the match it appeared inferior to that of the Roma, which not by chance has risen in tone when Claudio Ranieri he threw the first-choice players into the fray.

Conte's moves that didn't convince

Merits of the dean of coaches but perhaps, for once, also demerits of Tale, the coach who usually makes the end of the match the strong point of his teams. After a long time, we saw that again Napoli who not only fails to find the double, almost even giving up the hunt for it, but who hides behind thus allowing the opponents of the moment to gain ground and confidence. The same Tale, the man who has so far often set himself up as judge of the actions of his company, not sparing in recent days some criticism of the management of the market session now at the end of his tether, he has not convinced much with his moves from the bench. For many, the entry of Pasquale Mazzocchi and the substantial transition to a 5-3-2 It almost had the flavour of a surrender implicitly communicated to the Roma, which simultaneously raised the engine revs on the bands. In fact, the Napoli he handed himself over to the Giallorossi in that very area of ​​the pitch, uncovered after the exits of David Neres e Matteo Politano. Of course, if the newcomers Giovanni Simeone e James Raspadori had they managed better that potentially lethal counterattack instead thwarted so well by evan ndicka perhaps the Azzurri would have still managed to bring home the full stake, but with 'ifs' and 'buts', in football as in life, nothing is done. And, after all, the Roma had already previously legitimized a result that perhaps would have matured even with a different management of the three changes made. In short, for once the 'magata' fails to Tale, who however does not make a drama out of it and sees the glass half full, rather proudly underlining how the joy of the Giallorossi for a 'simple' draw gives value to the credit and respect earned so far on the field by his Napoli. The replica shore Roma leads back instead to the turnover that Ranieri has carried out, thus failing to have any reverential fear towards the league leaders. The truth is that the last day at the top is a bit of a day of regrets: of theInter, who was unable to close the gap before recovery, and the Napoli, which postpones the first real escape attempt to better times.Read also - Figc, Gravina re-elected president