A Sunday to forget. For Napoli, unable to beat Palermo and hook Roma in second place and for Milan, also defeated in Udine and grappling with a crisis of results that risks compromising all the good done so far. The most sensational result is certainly that of the Azzurri: the home match against the penultimate in the standings seemed a simple formality, instead only a draw came out of the San Paolo (also a comeback) which prevents the hook up to second place and dangerously approaches the 'Inter (now only 3 points).
“There is great regret because the team didn't do badly – Sarri's analysis. – Sometimes there are haunted matches, where you end up conceding goals on the only chance allowed. I'm only sorry to have seen confusion in the last few minutes, we should have made better use of Pavoletti's presence but on the other hand the boys have to get used to him and vice versa. I repeat that I am sorry but not worried”.
However, the feeling remains of having wasted a great opportunity to lock down the Champions League position, now completely under discussion given Inter's progress, as well as the possibility of showing everyone an evidently still distant mental growth. Palermo faced the match with humility and courage, so much so that they found the goal after just 6' through Nestorovski, who was very good at turning a great cross from Rispoli on goal.
From then on, the siege of Napoli began but shots by Mertens and Callejon found a great Posavec, man of the match at least until halfway through the second half. Because in the 66th minute the Rosanero goalkeeper ruined everything with an incredible duck, which allowed Mertens to find the equalizer. It seemed like the prelude to overtaking, but the result hasn't changed since. And Napoli returned home with a point that really leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
A bit like for Milan, forced to pronounce the word "crisis" for the first time in the Montella era. This time the approach has nothing to do with it, in fact the start had been more than promising, so much so that the Rossoneri's 1-0 came after just 8' (Bonaventura on an assist from Suso). But then, as the minutes went by, Milan faded away and Delneri's Udinese ended up suffering, good and lucky in capitalizing on the episodes of the match in the best possible way.
Locatelli's mistake that sent Thereau on goal for the 1-1 goal (31'), but above all the topic of referee Banti, who didn't send off De Paul for a foul on De Sciglio. Red pencil episode: a minute later, in fact, the Argentine scored the 2-1 goal, moreover starting from the flank left uncovered by the Rossoneri full-back (also a mistake by Montella who didn't speed up the substitution with Vangioni).
“It was naive, unfortunately we make mistakes that we pay dearly for – sighed the Rossoneri coach. – In this case, in addition to the damage of having lost De Sciglio, there was also the mockery of the goal, we have to be able to be a bit savvy even if it's normal to make mistakes when you have so many young players. From the point of view of the game we are not in crisis even if, results in hand, there is certainly something wrong”.
However, the standings are starting to get difficult and against Sampdoria a return to 3 points will be needed: otherwise the return to Europe, taken for granted until a few weeks ago, could really get complicated.
