Goal, show and many, many mistakes. It certainly cannot be said that Napoli-Inter was a boring match! In fact, the 2-2 final does justice to a fun and lively evening but on the other hand, with two teams like this, the opposite would have been decidedly more strange. Of course, the match must have made the purists of tactics turn up their noses: a certain Arrigo Sacchi, for example, loved to underline how perfect matches were those without goals precisely because, for each of them, there is always a defensive error. However, it must be said that the challenge followed an all in all logical script, son of two coaches like Benitez and Mancini, always chasing the extra goal rather than the clean sheet. And so Napoli-Inter offered entertainment for the entire 90 minutes, even if the goals only came in the second half.
The result was a romantic and unpredictable 2-2 which, on balance, is of little use to both teams. The Azzurri fail to approach Roma and indeed risk finding themselves breathing down their necks from Lazio or Fiorentina, engaged this evening (19 pm) in one of the two postponements of the 26th matchday, the Nerazzurri move further away from the Europa League area and question themselves why so much discontinuity. The biggest regret, for how it was going, however, belongs to Napoli: with a two-goal lead, twenty minutes from the end, they were unable to manage a match that seemed to have been won.
"I'm not angry, my team played well against a great opponent," Benitez explained. – It wasn't a question of a psychological decline, it's just that Inter have players capable of making an impact even during the match." Indeed, the turning point came right from the bench: Mancini introduced Hernanes and Puscas down by two goals, going from 4-3-1-2 to 4-2-3-1. Winning move, which freed the outsider's inspiration, creating several problems for the hosts. From the 2-0 signed by Hamsik (header in the 51st minute) and Higuain (splendid right-footed shot in the 63rd minute) we thus arrived at 2-2 with goals from Palacio (a daring tap-in under the goal in the 72nd minute) and Icardi ( penalty with "spoon" in the 87th minute). And in the final, with Napoli in 10 (Henrique expelled for the penalty on Palacio), San Paolo even felt fear…
“We should have tried to win it – sighed Mancini. – We were down by two goals without even knowing why, if we didn't concede so much in these matches we would even be able to take them home. However, I'm satisfied with my parents' reaction, we were playing in Naples against a great team and we managed to build up several chances." However, the feeling of two incomplete teams remains, capable of anything, in one sense or another. And this, a few days before the Europa League (the Azzurri will challenge Dinamo Mosca at San Paolo, the Nerazzurri instead will visit the Germans of Wolfsburg), certainly does not let us sleep peacefully.
