Other than head to Real! Napoli liquidates the Genoa practice with a 2-0 that does not allow for a reply and thus achieves a double objective: 3 points which are worth second place in the standings (waiting, of course, for Roma) and a nice injection of confidence in view of Madrid . Wednesday evening, in the hot tub of the Bernabeu, a super performance and a good victory will be needed, ça va sans dire, it's always good for the body and morale. “I don't know if we'll be up to it – sighed Sarri. – We must hope to play at the top and above all present ourselves with the right conviction, we will need a pinch of fear and boldness to try to have our say". The right dose of humility never hurts, especially in view of a match like the one in Madrid, but the blue coach knows well that his Napoli has cards to play. On the other hand, the numbers and performances speak for themselves: the Neapolitans have by far the best attack in the league (57 goals scored, 9 more than Roma and 10 more than Juve) and a game that, when it works, doesn't look bad either in the presence of the big Europeans. The big question mark concerns the mentality but yesterday, in this sense, a very positive answer arrived.
Of course, Juric's disastrous Genoa (only 2 points in the last 8 games) cannot even remotely be compared to Real Madrid, but Napoli ran the risk of taking him lightly, perhaps with their heads already focused on the Bernabeu. And the first half seemed to confirm the fears of the eve, so much so that the rossoblu closed it on 0-0, however, without disfiguring. But then in the second half, thanks to a probable wake-up call from Sarri, Napoli regained speed in their head and legs and, as a logical consequence, the goals arrived. In the 50th minute Zielinski unblocked the impasse with a splendid left-footed shot from the edge of the area and there ended Genoa's resistance: from that moment on, in fact, the match was colored blue and Jackets' 2-0 (68' , easy tap-in after a great action by Mertens) was the right reward. “They started very strong but I knew they would then drop – Sarri's analysis. – In the second half we played as a real team, creating a lot and conceding nothing. I consider this match a big step forward”. The Italian diploma is now one step away from being won, but now comes the Champions League graduation exam. Napoli knows they are not the favorites, but not even beaten regardless. And in Madrid they begin to look suspiciously at this much more Spanish than Italian team…
