Napoli stumbles at home, Empoli crushes Maradona: 0-1

Luck favors the daring, the wise men in ancient Rome knew it and Empoli also knows it well, winning Maradona with a courageous race conduct, culminating in a decisive and lucky goal scored by Cutrone with an involuntary blow to the back of the head while his back was turned to the door. The decisive moment of the match came in the 25th minute of the second half. There is a corner kicked from the left on which Anguissa jumps and hits her head. The ball hits the back of Cutrone’s neck, turned away, and the rebound becomes an unstoppable conclusion for Ospina. But Empoli’s victory is not just luck, it would be reductive to consider the merits of Andreazzoli’s team limited to benign fate, especially in the first half, challenging the Azzurri with clarity and great tactical acumen, putting them in great difficulty. In the first part of the game the Tuscans manage to keep possession of the ball mainly in the midfield area, exploiting the numerical superiority with its four midfielders who cut out Demme and Zielinski to whom Lozano and Elmas on the flanks and Ounas in the center do not give the help that would be needed to balance the situation. Zielinski on 22 ‘was forced to leave the field due to respiratory problems, replaced by Insigne and Elmas climbed in midfield alongside Demme. When the hosts manage to present themselves in compact ranks on the edge of the opponent’s penalty area, some dangerous initiative is born which in the first part of the game is realized with a shot by Elmas that beats on the top of the crossbar, with a narrow conclusion. high by Mertens and with a shot by Lozano countered by Vicario. In the second half, Napoli seems to start with a greater decision and in fact closes Empoli for long sections of the game in their own half. Throughout the second half, Andreazzoli’s team fails to appear in the Ospina penalty area, if we exclude the episode of the corner kick, which culminated in Cutrone’s daring goal, determined by an error in midfield by Elmas. Once at a disadvantage, Napoli pours into the opponent’s penalty area. The scrums are flaky but a Vicar’s arm or glove always appears at the right moment to successfully defend the advantage. Petagna hits the post, Napoli is struggling and Empoli suffers but resists, managing to bring home a precious victory, the fifth in the external field since the beginning of the championship. Napoli with the second consecutive defeat at Maradona slips to the edges of the top of the table.