With exciting play and spectacular individuality, Napoli dominated the Italian championship head and shoulders. He was officially crowned Thursday, five days from the end, after his draw against Udinese (1-1).
Silenced for thirty-three years, the Neapolitan people roared again. Thanks to a draw against Udinese (1-1), Thursday, May 4, Napoli formalized the third crowning of Italian champions in their history, after those conquered in 1987 and 1990 under the era Maradona. The Argentinian is no longer there but the Vesuvius club has woken up.
The numbers make you dizzy: with 16 points ahead of Lazio, second, a flamboyant attack (69 goals scored is the best in Serie A with 17 achievements ahead of second) and a robust defense (23 goals conceded, current best defense), the Partenopei did not leave room for a semblance of suspense.
The tube of the season may have stopped in the quarter-finals of the Champions League – all the same a club-wide record – but it flew over the debates with such aplomb that it breathed real wind of freshness in Serie A. “Naples have spent much less than Juventus and Inter, investing in the only thing that costs nothing: the game”praised Arrigo Sacchi, legendary coach of AC Milan (1987-1991), in the columns ofIl Mattino [article en italien].
“In terms of style of play, they may be the best team in Europe this season”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiolaat SkySport
This success is all the more impressive since at the start of the season, not much predestined these Neapolitans to crush the competition. Executives Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens had packed up, and the CVs of their alternates made the tifosi. However, it only took a few games for Georgian winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (14 goals, 16 assists in all competitions) or South Korean defender Kim Min-jae to put the Mediterranean city at their feet.
“All football fans should be happy”
Along with Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen (22 goals, top scorer in the championship), they were the visible faces of an infallible and particularly spectacular collective, oiled by technician Luciano Spalletti. “All football fans should be happy if Napoli win the Scudetto”prophesied as early as January Roberto de Zerbi, Brighton’s successful coach, for La Repubblica.
Napoli then came out of a memorable demonstration (5-1) against Juventus, their hated rival who had deprived them of a title in 2018, under the orders of Maurizio Sarri. “At that time, the club created a DNA of beautiful play, always practiced under Spalletti”recently explained the 2006 Ballon d’Or Fabio Cannavaro, in the columns of the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Similar conclusions were drawn at the end of last season when talking about AC Milan. Its superiority over the rest of the league has not reached Neapolitan heights this season, but the club rossonero also produced, in sequence, a spectacular game. This revival then contrasted drastically with the nine successive coronations of Juventus (2011-2020), including five under the leadership of Massimiliano Allegri, follower of football without frills or real aesthetics.
Disgusted adversaries … who take revenge in Europe
“The truth is that Serie A had become a bit boring during this period.observed, with an outside eye, the former Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas on DAZN. The triumph of Napoli, like that of Milan last year, is a real good thing for Italian football.” It is thus no coincidence that Cannavaro evokes a “international soccer” to describe the club of his hometown, whose address in counter-attacks and intensity in recovering the ball are in line with the great continental teams.
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On the European scene, Italian clubs are shining brightly this season: Inter and AC Milan will face each other in the Champions League semi-finals, AS Roma and Juventus are in the race for the Europa League. , like Fiorentina in the Europa League Conference. “Napoli’s dominance in the league has forced other clubs to focus on other goals. It’s good for Italian football as a whole”believes Fabio Cannavaro.
All of them, however, suffered the lightning of Napoli in Serie A … with the exception of AC Milan, who defeated the Azzurri in the quarterfinals of C1 (1-0, 1-1). This “disappointment” European Union, according to Spalletti, could have darkened the picture. Nothing happened: a look at the streets of Naples, ablaze as soon as the Scudetto became official, is enough to measure the scope of this historic season. “But we won’t wait another 30 years!”, launched, hilarious, Cannavaro. If he continues this momentum, this Napoli will be hard to dethrone.