Un Napoli unstoppable, one Lazio spectacular. Sunday of Serie A it ends with the success of the Azzurri against Roma, the twelfth consecutive match between the championship and the Champions League, but also with that of the Biancocelesti in Bergamo, who reached their sixth straight game without conceding a goal. In short, Spalletti and Sarri are on the shields, while Mourinho and Gasperini just have to accept defeat, even if two like them will hardly be able to do it (see the Portuguese's statements). The ranking thus sees Napoli in the lead with 29 points, Milan second with 26, Lazio and Atalanta paired with 24, Roma with 22, Udinese and Inter with 21, Juventus with 19: 8 teams in 10 lengths, ready to contend for the Scudetto and places in Europe with no holds barred.
Rome-Naples 0-1, a magic from Osimhen silences the Olimpico
The big match at the Olimpico lived under the banner of balance, with two teams challenging each other with their respective weapons at their disposal: low defense and counterattacks for Roma, ball possession and sudden verticalizations for Napoli. Spalletti won, rewarded by a gigantic Osimhen, capable of conquering the duel with Smalling in the only flaw of the latter, which however cost Mourinho dearly. In fact, on Politano's illuminating launch, the Nigerian took time in the English style and launched a cross missile on which Rui Patricio was unable to do anything, except to spread his arms as a sign of surrender (80'). There were 10' left to go and the game now seemed to be heading towards a 0-0 draw which would have made Roma happier, whose tactical plan aimed above all at that, as demonstrated by the zero shots on target towards Meret, against 5 from Napoli. Deserved victory in short, even if it is impossible to obtain without the magic of Osimhen.
Mourinho doesn't agree: "Napoli won without deserving"
“Congratulations to Napoli who won without deserving and to mine who lost without deserving it – he growled Mourinho -.Ours was sufficient performance not to lose the match, but I wanted to win it like they did: a couple of shots on goal and a goal. A balanced, controlled match, then due to the many yellow cards and tiredness we got into trouble. The feeling was that whoever scored first would win, they did it and they took the 3 points. Napoli are a quality team, we too have had one-on-one situations on the counterattack, but those few occasions we have not been able to exploit them”.
Spalletti is the superior: "I don't answer to Mourinho, congratulations to my Napoli"
“I don't want to talk about what Mourinho said, but analyze my game – he glossed over Spalletti -. It was full of traps, but the team instead knew how to interpret it very well, even if it made some easy construction mistakes. We created those two-three occasions from gol to win, without ever conceding the low steal and the long ball, which they are good at: a round of applause for the behavior of my team. Osimhen? We need him to score goals and sudden accelerations, when he's sorted out some emotions he'll become very strong”.
Atalanta-Lazio 0-2, Sarri wins even without Immobile
The other big victory of the day is that of Lazio, capable of conquering Bergamo even without the Immobile bomber. The 0-2 final, however, does not do justice to the white domain, which emerged from the first minutes thanks to the web of fast passes and frenetic movements studied by Sarri and perfectly implemented by the players. Felipe Anderson, deployed in the unprecedented false nine position, drove the Nerazzurri defense crazy, as well as Zaccagni, an elusive ferret on the outside: it is no coincidence that they scored the two goals in the match, before the Commander gave the order to put the match to sleep with all due respect to Gasperini, who was forced to leave 3 very important points on the field.
Sarri: "Atalanta have never been dangerous and it's thanks to us"
"We must congratulate Atalanta for the pitch, a very fast, extraordinary pitch, which has helped us to play good football - Sarri's analysis -. The team had a good race, if Atalanta was not dangerous, the credit was also ours because coming to play here is always difficult. It's a victory that gives us satisfaction, but as soon as we get home we'll already have to think about Thursday".
Gasperini admits: "Lazio dominated, we have to grow"
“A defeat that is all against us an extraordinary Lazio, especially in the first half – he admitted Gasperini -. We weren't able to fix it and the opening goal put them in the best possible condition. We did better in the second half, but the second goal took away our hope of rejoining the game, we came close, but it was too late by now. It's a defeat that must help us grow, we hadn't met such a skilled team yet, who arrived before us on every ball, it's a game that will be useful for us".
