Game 15, Serie A
Sunday, December 8, 2024
Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
Napoli Lazio 0-1
Isaksen puts the icing on the pastry and Lazio beat Napoli away for the third consecutive season.
The team
Both managers changed their teams completely compared to the Coppa Italia game. There were 20 different players. Marco Baroni fielded the weekend team (it is by now pointless to distinguish between A and B team with Lazio) and Antonio Conte his A team. Returning from injury were Nuno Tavares and Boulaye Dia with Adam Marusic as right back, deemed better than Manuel Lazzari from a defensive point of view since Napoli’s best winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia played on that side. Nicolò Rovella was suspended, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru took his place.
First half
Napoli started very strongly under heavy rain and after just three minutes had a chance. Giovanni Di Lorenzo to Matteo Politano in the box close to the byline, low cross for Scott McTominay who tried a shot but Ivan Provedel parried into corner.
After the first ten minutes Lazio started getting control of the match and Napoli moved backwards. In the 20th minute Taty Castellanos to Gustav Isaksen on the right, the Dane moved towards the centre and shot, Alex Meret made a difficult save. Two minutes later Nuno Tavares crossed into the penalty area from the left, Taty tried a header which went wide.
The game was rather blocked. Both teams defended well and there was little opportunity to find the gaps and be dangerous. André-Frank Anguissa tried an acrobatic volley in the 33rd minute, no problem for Provedel and three minutes later a Politano shot went well wide. Towards the end of the half Napoli gained control again and this time it was Lazio who were forced to move backwards.
In the second minute of injury time Napoli had a free kick just outside the box. Kvaratskhelia’s curling shot went wide by a whisker.
Second half
In the 51st minute Dele-Dashiru dispossessed Stanislav Lobotka and raced towards the penalty area. Just outside he sent a missile towards Meret which crashed onto the crossbar.
In the 61st minute Alessio Romagnoli took a knock and had to be substituted. In came Patric.
In the 71st minute Kvaratskhelia took a corner, Anguissa tried a header which scraped the woodwork. Immediately after Baroni sent in Tijani Noslin and Pedro for Castellanos and Dia. A few minutes later David Neres replaced Politano.
Napoli were pushing forward and Lazio were defending well. The Azzurri kept on sending crosses into the box but to no effect, Romelu Lukaku, as often happens in big games, was null. The Biancocelesti were just waiting for their chance.
And it came. Neres lost the ball on the limit of the Lazio penalty area, Mattia Zaccagni to Nuno Tavares on the left who advanced and passed to Noslin on the half way line. The Dutchman turned, avoided Lobotka and McTominay and sent a long pass to Isaksen on the right. The Dane dribbled past Matias Oliveira and from just outside the box sent in a perfect shot which beat Meret. The Biancocelesti were ahead, ten minutes to go.
All Conte could do was make substitutions. In the 82nd he sent in Billy Gilmour and Giacomo Raspadori for McTominay and Lobotka and in the 92st minute Giovanni Simeone and Michael Folorunsho in place of Lukaku and Anguissa. But they did not create anything and Lazio won.
It is the Biancocelesti’s third consecutive win in Naples, following Matias Vecino’s 1-0 in 2022-23 and Daichi Kamada’s winner last year. As with the two previous games, a splendid performance by Lazio especially Dele-Bashiru and Isaksen, who many, still to this day, claim to be Serie B material.
A word on the referee. He was the same one who last year disallowed a Matteo Guendouzi goal going against the rule book. This year he managed to book three Lazio players for normal fouls and forgot to show yellows to Di Lorenzo a number of times. A great career ahead of him, and no pun intended.
The Neapolitans said that it would be a different game with their A team. Maybe, but not in the result.
The team dedicated their win to the two twins, Flavio and Francesco, who recently past away. They had been fighting Batten Disease. Flavio died in October, Francesco on December 6. The twins had been "adopted" by the team.
Who played for Napoli
Meret, Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Olivera, Anguissa (90'+1' Folorunsho), Lobotka (82' Gilmour), McTominay (82' Raspadori), Politano (76' Neres), Lukaku (90'+2' Simeone), Kvaratskhelia
Substitutes: Caprile, Contini, Juan Jesus, Marin, Zerbin, Ngonge, Spinazzola
Manager: Conte
Who played for Lazio
Provedel, Marusic, Gila, Romagnoli (61' Patric), Nuno Tavares (90'+3' Gigot), Guendouzi, Dele-Bashiru, Isaksen (90'+2' Lazzari), Dia (72' Pedro), Zaccagni; Castellanos (72' Noslin)
Substitutes: Mandas, Furlanetto, Bordon, Castrovilli, Tchaouna
Manager: Baroni
Referee: Colombo
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