The party just started is already over. Indeed, postponed. Salernitana with a goal from Dia in the final match, which equalized the one scored by Olivera at 17′ of the second half, mocked Napoli and forced them to postpone, at least four days, the Scudetto celebrations that had been prepared by the entire city and the team. For Napoli now the conquest of the title can take place on Thursday when the Spalletti’s team will be busy in Udine. The party, announced and organized well in advance, seems to have become real 17′ into the second half.
Olivera’s goal
Olivera jumped into the center of the penalty area and headed a cross from Raspadori’s flag into the net. Napoli, thanks also to defeat of Lazio with Inter, at that moment the tricolor shield is sewn on the shirt. But in football nothing is ever taken for granted. Paulo Sousa, who until then had set up an exclusively containment game, makes the appropriate changes and decides to play it openly. In the 39th minute Dia breaks free on the left side of the attack front and with a curling shot he sends the ball to the back of the net, for a 1-1 which will then be final. On the ‘Maradona’, already ready to start the celebrations that had been organized inside the stadium before flowing into the streets of the city, the frost falls. The remaining time is not enough for Napoli to regain success.
Party postponed
The match ended with a draw which postponed the appointment with the tricolor for the Azzurri and removed Salernitana from the relegation zone. The game is spent waiting for a goal which is late in arriving not so much for the demerit of Naples, as for the tactical attitude of Salernitana. The grenades need at least one point which would be fundamental in terms of salvation and Paulo Sousa does not compliment it. In fact, he fields the team with a 5-4-1 that in moments of more intense pressure from the Napoli turns into a 6-3-1 because Coulibalythe physically better equipped footballer of Salernitana, retreats a few meters until he aligns with the three central defenders.
Dia’s goal freezes the party
In these tactical conditions, Napoli finds no space and as much as he patiently rolls the ball from one side of the field to the other, hoping to find times and ways for a decisive pocket, the dangers to the door of Ochoa they arrive in the first half of the game only with a header from Osimhen and from a shot from distance from Anguissa. The Nigerian attacker is too isolated in the midst of a swarm of opponents, while Kvaraskhelia is systematically closed by Mazzocchi and Daniliuc in an iron grip, with Pirola and Bradaric which on the opposite side reserve the same treatment for Lozano. In the second half, the tactical theme does not change. The goal for Napoli seems to come only with a shot from distance or from a set piece. And in fact it is from a corner kick that Olivera deflects the parabola into the net. Then there’s Salernitana’s reaction and Dia’s goal which freezes the stadium and postpones the celebration of Naples and the city for a few days.
Spalletti: “This is how we extend our party”
“We had wonderful sensations, we have welcomed this affection, this warmth, this desire. Let’s go ahead waiting to give our fans the dream to the end, enjoying it slowly, like so many kisses”. Luciano Spalletti comments on Maradona’s strange afternoon and the entire city of Naples, which experienced ups and downs of emotions in just a few hours: disappointment at Lazio’s advantage and joy at Inter’s overtaking, then exultation at the goals from Olivera and finally the cold shower for Salernitana’s draw. a metaphor for the classic image of the city accustomed to suffering and rejoicing. A vision that by now even the Tuscan coach Spalletti knows well and is ready to live with the team: “To bring the Neapolitans their strong dream – he explains – we still need some steps and we are ready to take them, but they are not easy: especially now that as the title approaches, it becomes an even greater emotional and psychological load than normal. We suffered it as anyone would suffer it”. However, Spalletti confesses that he “doesn’t feel at all uncomfortable in the standings situation, I’m very comfortable in it”, and on the postponed party he says: “So we extend the enjoyment”.