Six Napoli players were in action on Friday: Giacomo Raspadori, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Eljif Elmas, Kim Min-jae and Mathias Olivera.
Jack and John
Giacomo Raspadori scored the lone goal in Italy’s 1-0 victory over England. The forward cushioned down the long ball from Leonardo Bonucci before curling a shot around Nick Pope.
Like his performance against Spezia in Serie A, Raspadori had a few awkward touches early in the match, but continued to work hard and was rewarded for his efforts.
Raspadori played as the second striker in Roberto Mancini’s newly formed 3-5-2 formation, alongside former Sassuolo teammate Gianluca Scamacca. In the 81st minute, he was replaced by Manolo Gabbiadini.
Meanwhile, Giovanni Di Lorenzo played at right wing-back – a position well-suited for a player who’s accustomed to making marauding runs down the right wing.
As he often does with Napoli, Di Lorenzo regularly joined the attack and on (at least) one occasion, he linked up with his Napoli teammate. The Napoli right back played a clever backheel pass through the legs of Harry Kane to Raspadori, whose cross was parried away by Pope for an Italy corner kick.
Italy will play against Hungary on Monday, needing a win or draw to advance to the finals of the UEFA Nations League.
Kvara vs Elmas
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia hosted Eljif Elmas at the Georgian’s former stomping ground, the Boris Paichadze Dinamo Arena. This was a battle between Napoli gems who play similar roles for their respective set pieces: leading the attack, taking set pieces and going for goal.
Despite some impressive dribbles early in the first half and a narrow miss early in the second half, Elmas was overshadowed by his Georgian counterpart.
Kvaratskhelia created the first goal after running at Stefan Ashkovski before drilling a cross off of Bojan Miovski and into the back of the Macedonia’s own goal. Kvara doubled Georgia’s lead in the second half after Budu Zivzivadze unselfishly teed up the Napoli winger in front of an empty goal.
With the win, Georgia earned promotion to UEFA Nations League division B and qualified for the 2024 European Championship playoff.
International “Friendlies”
Kim Min-Jae and Mathias Olivera competed in international friendlies against other World Cup finalists to prepare for Qatar 2022.
Kim played the full 90 minutes in South Korea’s 2-2 draw against Costa Rica while Mathias Olivera played 85 minutes in Uruguay’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Iran.
[…] sprain against AC Milan, did not participate in Italy’s UEFA Nations League matches against England and Hungary. Instead, he returned from Coverciano to Napoli to receive […]