After seeing Liverpool demolish Villa this afternoon, only a Napoli victory over AC Milan would do anything to lift my mood. I wasn't very confident, despite the Rossoneri starting without the injured Christian Abbiati, and Kaka and Ronaldinho starting on the bench.
Milan's visit to Stadio San Paolo was Roberto Donadoni's second game in charge of the Azzurri, and also marked the return of Daniele Mannini following the suspension of his ban for missing a drug test. Napoli were aiming to stop the rot, while Milan are looking to qualify for the Champions League.
Milan quickly took control of possession in the first 15 minutes but had little to show for it. David Beckham, apart from taking exception to the attentions of Manuele Blasi, was very efficient. Alexandre Pato's touch and pace showed early on, too. The kid's a total genius.
For Napoli, Matteo Contini's pair of last-ditch tackles were required to prevent Pippo Inzaghi creating gilt-edged chances for himself.
It was Mannini who squandered the game's first real chance. He mugged Gianluca Zambrotta on the half way line and burst at pace towards Nelson Dida's goal before firing his shot disappointingly wide from the edge of the area.
Milan created some half chances, with Beckham and Inzaghi key to most. But the game was characterised by Napoli's quick attacks. Their next led to Marcelo Zalayeta's race to goal, but his shot was blocked.
Seconds later, Nicolás Navarro did well to push Clarence Seedorf's dangerous swerving shot over the crossbar. Then, Inzaghi found himself offside - all is right with the world.
Ezequiel Lavezzi almost put Napoli ahead with a brilliant strike ten minutes before half time. He played a one-two with Michele Pazienza, and bent a shot towards goal with the outside of his right foot. Dida tipped over.
From the resulting corner, Napoli were robbed of the lead. The kick was met in the air by Zalayeta and Marek Hamsik, clearly onside, poked the ball home. The assistant referee flagged though. I wonder if he got out of Naples unscathed. Appalling decision.
The incident sparked Napoli into life, and they went on a couple more attacks before Milan crept back into the game. Even then, with only Lavezzi ahead of the ball when Milan had possession, Napoli proved impossible to break down before the interval.
The beginning of the second half was very scrappy until Milan began to put their foot on the ball. In doing so, they slowed the game down and allowed Napoli to put everyone behind the ball. From there, the Rossoneri just couldn't find a way through.
Ten minutes after the break, Napoli's Mannini wasted the first real chance of the second half, thumping his free header over as he met a deep cross.
With Napoli looking increasingly dangerous on the break, Carlo Ancelotti brought Kaka and Ronaldiho on for Milan, but it was the Azzurri who continued to provide the bite. A wonderful chipped cross by Hamsik found Zalayeta completely unmarked in the area. All he had to do was touch it past Dida on the volley, but somehow he missed.
With 18 minutes left on the clock, Napoli threatened yet again. Great work from Lavezzi gave Zalayeta another chance to put his side in front, but Dida was almost equal to the Uruguayan's measured finish and more than equal to his follow-up.
Milan's best opening of the game came moments later, and was all Napoli's own doing. Fabiano Santacroce headed past his advancing goalkeeper Navarro but fortunately there was not enough power to take the ball across the line. And yes, I do mean fortunately.
Subsequently Napoli continued to look the most threatening, having really taken the initiative in the second period. Lavezzi was unlucky not to score on 79 with a clever snapshot from inside the box, and again two minutes later after a twinkle-toed run into the area.
With four minutes left, the entire Milan bench invaded the pitch after a few little niggles led to flaring tempers. Beckham was central, after a couple of clashes wth Blasi and getting involved when Contini confronted Pato after the Brazilian tried to humiliate him with a bit of trickery.
The referee tidied things up without resorting to the book. If it weren't for the awful disallowed goal, I'd suggest English referees could learn a thing or two.
Sadly, it wasn't to be for Napoli. Despite being the better side, they were undone by Zalayeta's poor finishing and a bad decision by an assistant referee. Maybe Argentine striker German Denis would have turned one point into three tonight. We'll never know.
Posted by Chris Nee
2 comments:
Zalayeta has a knack for missing the easier looking goals (like this match) and scoring the harder ones; flashback to when he sent Barcelona packing in the UCL in overtime while he was at Juve.
Absolutely. He put in a few decent touches last night but generally looked a little lumbering and uncomfortable. Still, Napoli were the better side so he can't have been all bad.
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