Despite the heavy defeat of Maradona against Milan for 4-0, the coach of Naples, Luciano Spalletti comments with serenity on the match: “Milan made a great performancestarted strong and took advantage of everything we gave them – he says – They were very good at using the spaces, we were below our level, the great availability of the boys made us stretch even further in an attempt to overturn the result and they took advantage of those spaces”. Something didn’t work compared to the usual performances: “We struggled in circulation, we forced the plays, we made mistakes too many balls for our level – he explains again – We could have waited a bit in the pressure to be more compact, we left too many spaces between the lines and they are good at playing there. In going man against man, we didn’t divide their positions well”. Napoli seemed a little tired and exhausted after the international break and the long journeys that their players had to make: “Surely the performance is a little influenced by the stop for the national teams, some came back a little tired but this also happened to Milan who put in a great performance. We were a little unlucky as someone came back a little bruised”.
“Champions? Now some will think we didn’t have an easy draw”
The first round of the three that will take place at close range (the next two in the quarter-finals of the Champions League) went to Milan and something could change in view of the two matches in Europe: “What changes in terms of the Champions League? I hope there will be someone else who says we didn’t benefit from this drawIt seemed like an easy team had happened to us but that’s not the case – says Spalletti – The beacon of the Champions League puts everything back in place, in those matches everyone brings in all the qualities they have”. Small spat with Maldini between the first and second half in the dressing room tunnel: “Nothing happened. I was returning to the dressing room and was asking about Lobotka’s yellow card, Maldini waved his arms as if I were complaining. It seems to me that it was they who protested from the bench during the match. I didn’t like the fact that he was talking over me when I was addressing the referee, he then reacted a bit but from me there is nothing. Then he’s Paolo Maldini but I’ve been there too (in Serie A as a player ed) not at their level but I’ve been there. Those are a little bit unpleasant things.”