On Tuesday, Napoli suffered the shock of the 2022/23 Coppa Italia, losing to Cremonese in a penalty shootout. It took a perfect storm for the Scudetto favourites to suffer defeat at the hands of Serie A’s only winless club. Forza Napoli Press tries to make sense of the upset.
The Lineup
With a busy fixture list ahead, Luciano Spalletti rotated heavily, replacing all ten outfield players that started on Friday against Juventus. Though Napoli lacked their usual rhythm, the “B-team” played with plenty of desire, relishing a rare opportunity to play. At the 65th minute, when Spalletti made his first substitutions, Napoli had a 2-1 lead.
In theory, bringing on five regular starters in André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Matteo Politano, Stanislav Lobotka, Kim Min-jae and Piotr Zielinski should have only improved the squad. However, it was during this period that Napoli seemed the most disinterested and it was on their watch that the equalizer was conceded.
Officiating
The new Valentine’s Day kits that Napoli donned for the first (and perhaps last) time were put up for auction at MatchWornShirt.com. The proceeds will be donated to three local charities who focus on gender-based violence. The initiative coincided with Italian football’s first ever match officiated by an all-female crew.
Unfortunately, the officiating was quite poor, including from fourth official Marco Di Bello and VAR officials Valerio Marini and Oreste Muto (all of whom are male). Though most of their errors were inconsequential, the officials overlooked two glaring yellow-card offenses in the second half.
In the 50th minute, Leonardo Sernicola was late to the ball, putting his studs into the knee of Juan Jesus. The foul might have been worthy of a straight red card, let alone a yellow. 12 minutes later, Sernicola scythed down Alessio Zerbin from behind, and again walked away scot-free. Cremonese should have played the final 28 minutes with ten men. Though not impossible – see Milan v Torino a week prior – it would have been exponentially more difficult for Cremonese, who were already struggling, to score an equalizer playing short-handed. Sernicola still managed to get himself sent off with a second yellow card in the tenth minute of stoppage time. But at that point, the Grigiorossi had only to defend, not score.
Game of Chances
Even with a disorganized first half and a disinterested second half, Napoli created a wealth of chances to score. Perhaps the most egregious miss came five minutes into the second half. Tanguy Ndombele, who was one of Napoli’s better players on the night, picked the pocket of Jack Hendry in the Cremonese half. The Frenchman carried into the final third and had options on either side of him, but overhit a pass intended for Giacomo Raspadori. With Napoli up 2-1, a goal in that situation might have sealed the victory.
Napoli’s remaining chances didn’t come until Victor Osimhen replaced Ndombele in stoppage time. The Nigerian very nearly scored with his first touch of the match, but Marco Carnesecchi used every centimeter of his 1.91 meter frame to push the header away. Giovanni Simeone, who scored Napoli’s second goal, was first to the rebound but his effort somehow spun off the post into the crossbar and stayed out – even luck was not on the Partenopei’s side. Politano, Anguissa and Osimhen all failed to convert clear opportunities to score in the second half of extra time. With the missed opportunities (Napoli’s xG was 2.09 to Cremonese’s 1.06), the math was decided by a penalty shootout – another game of chance.
When It Rains, It Pours
A heavy storm wreaked havoc on the Campania region on Tuesday. The rain and winds were so strong that this Coppa Italia fixture was at risk of being postponed. However, after an inspection of the stadium and pitch, local authorities allowed the match to proceed as planned. The weather cooperated until the 22nd minute of extra time, when the skies opened up, making for extremely difficult playing conditions. And yet, Napoli created three high quality opportunities to score in the final ten minutes of extra time. Perhaps in normal conditions one of those chances would have resulted in a goal. Surprisingly, the weather did not seem to affect the penalty shooters. Nine of the ten converted their shots, and the tenth, Stanislav Lobotka, didn’t miss by much.
