Napoli restarts in a friendly match: beat Antalyaspor

Raspadori midfielder is an idea that Spalletti has been thinking about for some time, it is enough to recall these statements of 2 September on the eve of Lazio-Naples: “one who is flexible, one who goes into these voids, recognizes them, knows how to hold the ball on him, doesn’t give him marking is annoying because he has strength.In this liquidity of football he can play as a winger, midfielder, striker, attacking midfielder, he adapts to what we were saying before.

After eight minutes of play on a pitch in less than perfect conditions, Raspadori rewarded Spalletti’s choice and gave Napoli the lead. He reads a mistake by Yeysel Sari in the protection of the ball, snatches it from him, puts himself in condition to kick and beats Uysal for the blue advantage by sending the ball under the top corner. In the 14th minute Raspadori also participates in the doubles action, avoids closing the one-two with Osimhen who is offside, ball to Politano who beats the Antalyaspor goalkeeper at the near post. Napoli works with a cheeky formation, just a wrong tempo and you have to run away. On one of these situations, Antalyaspor earned a corner kick and created the first danger with a header from former Milan player Luiz Adriano that went wide. In the 21st minute again from the right, after a ball lost by Mario Rui, Ghacha goes to cross, Di Lorenzo intervenes who risks his own goal but Meret controls the ball as it ends high over the crossbar. Antalyaspor tries to get back into the game, in the 23rd minute Gural volleys and misses the target, his shot goes wide. On 26 minutes Politano rewards Osimhen’s deep attack who looks for Kvaratskhelia at the far post, the Azzurri fail in the final choice, the persistent action ends with a shot that goes out in the arms of Uysal. In the half hour Raspadori came close to scoring twice: Zanoli’s cross, he rejected the opponent’s defence, the former Sassuolo who controlled and kicked from the edge of the area picked up the second ball, the left-footed shot hit the post. A little concern involves the whole Naples environment when Politano falls to the ground and touches his right knee but the blue offensive winger, after a few minutes, gets up and continues to play until the end of the first half, even with a sprint fifty meters to support Zanoli in the non-possession phase. In the 42nd minute Vural made himself dangerous by reading a cross from the right, his shot went wide on the near post covered by Meret.

The first half ends 2-0 for the Azzurri, Spalletti revolutionizes the team in the interval with the classic swirl of friendly substitutions. Hysaj, Zerbin, Zedadka, Ndombele, Demme, Gaetano and Simeone enter for Di Lorenzo, Politano, Mario Rui, Elmas, Lobotka and Osimhen. Spalletti thus changes seven out of eleven, only Meret, Zanoli, Ostigard, Raspadori remain on the field from the starting lineup. Raspadori changes role again, in an unprecedented 3-4-2-1 he goes between the lines with Ndombele behind SImeone. On a turnover in their own back, Antalyaspor earned a free-kick but the shot went high over the crossbar. In the 52nd minute Napoli creates the first danger of the second half, always inspiring Raspadori who serves Ndombele, the French midfielder’s shot rejected by Uysal. Antalyaspor shortens the distance in the 54th minute, Luiz Adriano finds the corridor for Mehmedi who crosses at the far post by beating Meret. Raspadori’s day, in the 60th minute Napoli returned to 3-1. Gaetano steals the ball, Ndombele no-look delivers the ball to ex Sassuolo who scores his personal brace. At 65 Antalyaspor becomes dangerous in an open field transition, a recovery by Hysaj unravels the skein. In the 67th minute Vural drops the ball into the net but offside, so the linesman cancels the 2-3 goal. In the 72nd minute Zerbin draws a nice trajectory for Simeone’s header that misses the target. In the 74th minute two more substitutions for Spalletti: Marfella enters for Meret, Spavone for Raspadori. Demme becomes captain, for Spavone the second appearance in the first team after the friendly against Juve Stabiua. Cholito tries again in the 76th minute with an assist from Zerbin, he hits the post, the second wood taken by Napoli after Raspadori’s in the first half. The substitutions were completed in the 81st minute: Marchisano and Barba took over for Zanoli and Ostigard. Barba goes on the centre-left, the opposite position to what happens in the Primavera, Marchisano usually plays the fifth, today he is positioned on the centre-right of the three-man defence. In the 85th minute Ozmert shortens the distance on a free-kick from the edge, mocking Marfella by making it 2-3. In the 90th minute, Antalyaspor goalkeeper Yamak, who took over during the second half, didn’t hold back a free-kick from Gaetano, Hysaj was anticipated. In added time other opportunities not capitalized with Zedadka and Zerbin. It ends 3-2, Napoli starts again in the sign of victory even in the friendly. Sunday the next test against Crystal Palace (at 4 pm Italian time), Saturday 17 December at 8.30 pm the return to Maradona against Villarreal of the former Albiol and Reina.

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