Naples (Italy) (AFP)
Lorenzo Insigne did not miss his penalty this time against Juventus to offer Saturday a nice blow to Naples (1-0) and a good breath of fresh air to his trainer Gennaro Gattuso, during the 22nd day of Serie A.
Thanks to Insigne's penalty, which remained on three failures in this exercise against the Bianconeri, but also valuable saves in the second half of his goalkeeper Alex Meret, Gattuso brought down for the third time in the league Juve of his friend Andrea Pirlo.
A warning for the Turinese before their round of 16 of the Champions League in Porto on Wednesday.
"I was serene on the penalty, because I have the confidence of my teammates and the coach, that's enough for me," assured Sky Insigne after his hundredth goal in the Neapolitan jersey (all competitions), obtained after an intervention of the VAR to sanction a fault of Giorgio Chiellini (31st).
"I'm happy for the result, but above all for the performance of the team, we fought to the end", he added after a success which brings Naples back to the Top 4 synonymous with the Champions League (tied with Roma and Lazio), two points behind Juve (3rd).
- Despite the absences -
In the Diego Maradona stadium, which looks like a refrigerator (3 ° C), swept by the wind, Juventus did not know how to get out of a trap that it sometimes likes to set for its opponents.
She held the ball a lot, pressed with energy but was unable to deceive an impeccable Meret, especially at the end of the match when the temperature climbed on her goal.
In the absence of Paolo Dybala (ankle), Aaron Ramsey (muscle discomfort) and Arthur (right leg problem), Juve squeezed a lot and held the ball a lot, but without success in front of the cage, like Cristiano Ronaldo who saw Meret stop his attempt at close range (49th).
Napoli, which had been crumbly in recent weeks with embarrassing defeats against La Spezia or Genoa in the league, found itself in this prestigious match, despite the absence of key players (Mertens, Koulibaly, Manolas) .
Juve and Napoli have not finished because they still have to play the first leg which did not take place in October: the Neapolitans had not made the trip to Turin after two cases of Covid-19 in their workforce.
This defeat of Juve can also do the business of AC Milan who moved to La Spezia (16th) to try to increase their lead.
- Excuses from Conte -
Stefano Pioli, who fears a lack of concentration in the face of a poorly classified, found several holders: Simon Kjaer, Hakan Calhanaglu and Ismaël Bennacer.
Sunday, the runner-up of the Milanese, Inter Milan, welcomes Lazio Rome for a poster scent of the Champions League.
For the Laziali, who will face Bayern Munich in the round of 16 in ten days, the Top 4 is the number 1 goal: it would even have the flavor of a scudetto for them, Simone Inzaghi assured Saturday.
The Nerazzurri, them, now dream of scudetto, but the real one, their last chance to win a title this season after their elimination from the European and national cups (Tuesday by Juventus in the semi-finals).
AntoL'nio Conte will return to the bench after being suspended the last two matches for a bloody stroke in January against a referee.
Decided to avoid a new suspension, he wanted to apologize on Saturday after his bad gesture this week on the occasion of this cup match against Juve.
The exchanges of insults with the Turin camp, and in particular President Andrea Agnelli, accompanied by an obscene gesture on the part of Conte, are the subject of an investigation by the Italian Federation.
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