No business. Napoli bows down again to Manchester City and sees the qualification speech become much more complicated, now linked to a whole series of results, of him and of the others. Yes, because the 2-4 of San Paolo and the contemporary 3-1 of Shakhtar over Feyenoord creates a very uninviting ranking: City first and qualified, Ukrainians second with 9 points, Azzurri third with 3.
To keep hoping for qualification, you need to beat Shathtar on the next day, then win in Rotterdam and hope that the English, probably already first, do their duty against the Ukrainians.
In short, the pass for the round of 3 is still possible but certainly not probable: Napoli's fault however does not lie so much in the two defeats against Guardiola's men, as in the first in Donetsk, when a bad performance cost XNUMX very heavy points.
“We found a strong team and put them in difficulty – commented Sarri. – Unfortunately we were a bit tired and we suffered from their physicality, this is something we have to work on and improve”.
There isn't much to say instead about what happened last night: they were facing one of the best teams in the world and the Azzurri, beyond the final result, held the field with honour. Indeed, at times (just like in the first leg), they would have deserved something more, but the problem is that against such a battleship you have to be almost perfect, or hope that the many opposing top players run into a bad evening.
It didn't happen, so the result was a 2-4 final that leaves bitterness but also the satisfaction of having put Guardiola's super team on the ropes like no one this season. “In the first 20' they massacred us, destroyed us, but then luckily the boys reacted – enraptured Pep's comment. – We have won a huge victory, Napoli play very well, their football makes me fall in love with them”.
However, his men have greater quality and aptitude for competition, which is why after suffering the start of the Azzurri and going behind (21' Insigne), they first managed to equalize (34' Otamendi), then to overturn the result ( 48' Stones).
Not only that, once joined by yet another proud Neapolitan bike (62' Jorginho from a penalty), they hit twice more, first with Aguero (69') and then with Sterling (92'). In short, a victory that fits, just like the applause for Napoli. In the hope that these will soon turn into qualification points.
