Il Napoli fly again, Milan falls again. Sunday in the championship offers the triumph of the Azzurri, who honor the memory of Maradona beating Lazio with a 4-0 without discussion, but also the unexpected thud of the Rossoneri, defeated at San Siro by Sassuolo and slipped to second place. Inzaghi's Inter can thus thank Dionisi but certainly not Sarri, annihilated by Spalletti with a performance of great character and quality, perfect for demonstrating that absences, however heavy, cannot affect the excellent work done so far. The match in Naples looked balanced, but the Azzurri ended it in less than one half, closing the first half with a well-deserved 3-0, the result of a sparkling start that saw goals from Zielinski (7'), e Mertens, author of a brace between 10' and 29'.
Lazio tried to get back into the race, but a super Ospina first denied Luis Alberto the goal, then repeated himself on Immobile, certifying the great evening of his teammates. In the second half, however, there was no more history and Napoli limited themselves to managing the ball, thus saving energy for the away game in Reggio Emilia on Wednesday, when they will have to deal with the rediscovered Sassuolo. In the 85th minute, just to make sense of the second half, Spalletti's men also scored the fourth goal with Fabian Ruiz (85'), good at beating Reina with a nice left foot from distance, thus finalizing the poker that is worth the first place alone. “
It's my best victory since I've been here, also because we came from 2-3 somewhat particular results and above all from subdued performances - he exulted the blue coach – Getting back to grinding game and scoring many goals against a big team like Lazio was important. We were good at carving out the spaces where they were in difficulty, they struggled to find the ball on attacks, while we always found the man free between the lines… In short, lots of stuff, really lots of stuff”.
A completely unexpected disaster that of Milan, subjugated by a Sassuolo fresher and on the ball, capable of canceling the sources of the opponent's game and exploiting the opportunities he had. In the long run, European efforts probably made the difference, because the Devil ended up shutting down at a distance, unable to react to the greater freshness of the neroverdi. In the first half hour, in fact, it was Pioli's men who had the upper hand, so much so that they found the advantage with Romagnoli, good at taking advantage of a corner from Theo Hernandez and scoring the 1-0 (21').
It seemed like the signal of a quiet victory, but Sassuolo reacted, and how if they reacted, first making the 1-1 with Chess (24'), then the 1-2 with an own goal by Kjær, propitiated again by the same neroverde center forward (33'). Milan felt the pinch, because post-Madrid tiredness was added to the pressure dictated by the standings, especially as Sassuolo did not retreat an inch, even creating new problems for Maignan.
And so in the second half, instead of witnessing a siege by Pioli's men, it was still those of Dionisi who made themselves dangerous, until 1-3 Berardi, very good at jumping Romagnoli and beating the Rossoneri goalkeeper (66'). The AC Milan captain's metamorphosis was completed in the 77th minute, when he knocked out Defrel on goal, making up for an inevitable red card that will force him to miss the midweek match in Genoa. The match, in fact, ended there and the conclusions of Kjaer and Messias narrowly reaffirmed, if still needed, the difficult AC Milan afternoon.
"The Champions League has nothing to do with it, we missed too many simple balls, giving courage to a fast, technical team: when I say that 7 goals are too many it means I'm worried - he admitted Pioli – It's an unexpected slowdown, we've made too many bad choices. At the start of the second half, we tried with character to restart the match, but we didn't do it with quality, only our fans didn't give up until the end".
The San Siro ko thus shortens the standings and not only as regards the top. Even those who are behind, in fact, come back to hoping to be able to get closer, like Gasperini's Atalanta or Mourinho's Rome, yesterday victorious against Turin and again in the wake of the Champions League. Suffered success for the Giallorossi, in an end-to-end fought match, in which the 1-0 scored by Abraham in the 32nd minute remained the only goal, enough to direct the 3 points to the Capital. The grenades tried to change the inertia, as well as Roma to score the goal that would have closed every discussion, but in the end the result remained unchanged and Mou was able to celebrate the third consecutive victory between the championship and the cup, which is essential for maintaining high seasonal expectations.
"The important thing was to defend well because a goal would have arrived, even if perhaps I would have expected one more - the words of the Special One - It is an important victory for us even if it arrived in a different way, without dominating like the last few games . I have a strong group, I like winning so much, more than a 5-0 because I have seen the effort, the suffering and the desire of the group".
However, there is no time to enjoy the standings, because from tomorrow it will be the championship again: this midweek round, in fact, has every appearance of being quite important, in the light of the many teams that will have to redeem themselves, or risk compromising a whole season.
