Napoli-Juventus, the challenge tonight. Beauty against short faces

Juventus arrives in Naples tonight and if you don’t know what to wear, Luciano Spalletti has taken care of it. He deliberately steered the game along the tracks of what now seems like a tradition even if it really isn’t. Beauty, i.e. Naples, versus the short muzzle. She claimed it at the press conference. Allegri embodies the Juventus motto “winning is not important, the only thing that matters. While Maradona was in Naples, Naples is beautiful otherwise everyone here wouldn’t be talking about Maurizio Sarri who didn’t win but left a mark. Declaring that you are inspired by Sarri on the eve of Juventus-Napoli brings to mind that defeat on the counterattack, at the then San Paolo, with goals from Gonzalo Higuain. Allegri was always on the bench for them, who placed the team on the edge of the penalty area and Napoli crashed until the final whistle. Just the match that Spalletti described yesterday in the conference, the same. We lost the Scudetto more in that direct clash than in the hotel. But the storytelling of Orsato and Pjanic took over and amen.

The good Luciano flaunted this attitude so much as to give hope that it could be a subtle dialectical trap to let his Livorno colleague spend a quiet night. The theorist of the short muzzle. In fact, Allegri wore his usual clothes. He knows his chickens and yesterday morning he started teasing. I have great respect for Luciano. so funny and funny that sometimes we argue like last year. I’m not a coach, I do this job by mistake I had to do something else. Luciano very good, always facing him is a good challenge. He is one of the best, if not the best, at teaching. I think it’s much more important to them than to us. Spalletti responded a bit (with the investments they’ve made, they have to win either the Champions League or the championship) and he took refuge in Sarri or pretended to take refuge in Sarri.

Thankfully tonight words won’t matter. There is no hiding in the field. And Napoli is stronger on the field. He has amply demonstrated this, in the league and in the Champions League (the Azzurri are in the round of 16, they are in the Europa League). Napoli has stronger players than Juventus. If you try to play the game who would I take of them, you will realize it. Would you trade Kvara for Kostic? Or Osimhen for Milik? Di Maria for Politano we can also grant it but Politano is always available and has a constant return; this season the Argentine has only played one memorable match and with the Argentina shirt.

It should be remembered, however, that sport is not only technique and quality, otherwise it would be like agility that some dog owners are so passionate about. Professional sports ability to handle tension. To live with stress, fear, adrenaline rushes. To read the now proverbial moments of the match. Specialties in which Diego Armando Maradona excelled. Even more than in individual technique, just to give you an idea. Sorry that this aspect has been forgotten. That Naples won because it was mentally ferocious. They didn’t need toys to ease the pressure. Like the rest of this Naples that grinded football in every situation: down by a goal against Sarri’s Lazio, after Milan’s draw at the San Siro, they overwhelmed Klopp’s Liverpool at home. Spalletti’s Napoli overturned the result in the championship four times out of seventeen, not exactly a few, and won against Cremonese and Milan after conceding a draw away from home. Do you want to see that beauty is the mirror for short faces?

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