Two Napoli players were in action on Thursday: Piotr Zielinski and Stanislav Lobotka.
Piotr Zielinski
Zielinski played 86 minutes in Poland’s 0-2 defeat at the hands of the Netherlands. However, Zielinski was one of the few bright spots for Poland in the defeat.
The Napoli midfielder began the match as one of the two trequartisti in Czeslaw Michniewicz’ 3-4-2-1 formation, before moving to the 10 in the second half, after Arkadiuz Milik replaced Karol Linetty.
Zielinski was the driving force behind the Poland attack, though Poland’s chances were few and far between.
Poland’s best chance came in the 52nd minute, after Zielinski played a gorgeous through-ball to Przemyslaw Frankowski on the right wing. Frankowski placed a one-touch cross on the foot of Milik at the edge of the six-yard box, but the Juventus striker put his shot over the bar.
In the end, the Dutch were deserving of the victory, which Zielinski acknowledged after the match.
“I think we did some good things in this match. We conceded the second goal during our best spell. There were some counter-attacks and decent plays on our part. But we have to acknowledge the Dutch footballing superiority today.”
Stanislav Lobotka
Lobotka played the full 90 minutes in Slovakia’s dramatic 1-2 defeat against Azerbaijan. Lobotka played in his usual regista role under new Slovakia coach Francesco Calzona.
Calzona, who served as an assistant to Luciano Spalletti last season, left his post at Napoli in the summer to join Slovakia.
Slovakia should have opened the scoring at the half hour mark after Lobotka played an accurate long ball to Martin Regali in the area. He picked out Erik Jirka in front of an open goal but the left winger got slightly underneath the ball with his header.
Though Slovakia controlled the run of play, Azerbaijan scored late in the first half to take a 1-0 lead into the break. Neither side scored again in normal time, then both teams scored in stoppage time in the second half. Slovakia won a penalty kick in the 92nd minute to equalize before Azerbaijan scored a 95th minute winner from a corner kick.
