On Saturday, Napoli played the first of two friendlies at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. The Partenopei took on Villarreal – currently ranked 9th in La Liga.
Pre-Match
In the buildup to the match, the official Villarreal social media channels posted videos featuring some of Napoli’s most famous tourist attractions, including Castel Dell’Ovo, Galleria Umberto I, Piazza del Plebiscito and the Quartieri Spagnoli – a stark contrast to the safety warnings issued by Napoli’s Champions League opponents.
Before the match, Napoli Vice President Edoardo De Laurentiis presented former Napoli players Raul Albiol and Pepe Reina with 2022/23 Napoli kits featuring their names and the numbers they wore at Napoli printed on the back. The pair were also greeted warmly by the Curva at the Maradona as they walked along the racing track.
After the pre-match formalities, both sides stood at the centre circle for a moment of silence in honour of the late Siniša Mihajlović, who passed away on Friday after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
First Half
Lineup (4-3-3): Meret; Mario Rui, Juan Jesus, Østigård, Di Lorenzo; Raspadori, Lobotka, Ndombele; Kvaratskhelia, Osimhen, Elmas
With neither Hirving Lozano nor Matteo Politano in the squad, Luciano Spalletti relied on the ever versatile Eljif Elmas to play on the right wing. On paper, Giacomo Raspadori lined on the left side of the midfield three, but in actuality he played as a No. 10.
Napoli looked to strike right out of the gate, with eight of the ten outfield players lined up on the halfway line for the opening kickoff. The forwards sprinted forward in anticipation of Mario Rui’s long ball. Albiol intercepted the pass, intended for Victor Osimhen, but his touch was heavy and the ball fell kindly to Raspadori at the edge of the Villarreal area. The Napoli forward controlled the ball before going for goal with his left, but snatched at the shot and pulled it wide of the mark.
Villarreal recovered from the early scare and opened the scoring approximately ten minutes later. The Spanish side played through the Napoli press before pushing forward in numbers across midfield. Yéremy Pino played the ball to Johan Mojica on the overlap, and he put a low cross into the area. Álex Baena dummied the ball to Villarreal B-team player Diego Collado. His shot was blocked by Mario Rui, but the rebound fell to Étienne Capoue. No one picked up the late run from the French midfielder, who had plenty of time to pick the top corner.
However, like against Crystal palace, Napoli responded immediately. The Partenopeir equalized only two minutes after conceding, after Pino played an errant back-pass directly into the path of Victor Osimhen. The Nigerian turned quickly towards the area, took two touches to set up the shot, then blasted the bouncing ball over the shoulder of Reina at the near post.
The balance of the half was very competitive. Both sides defended well in a mid-block, effectively canceling each other out. The visitors had one final chance before the break, after Juan Jesus fouled Collado 25 yards from the goal. Mojica’s free kick crashed off the wall, but once again the rebound fell kindly to Capoue. His volley bounced twice en route to the goal, allowing Alex Meret to get across and stop the shot that was destined for the bottom corner.
Second Half
Lineup (4-2-3-1): Meret; Mario Rui, Juan Jesus, Østigård, Di Lorenzo; Gaetano, Lobotka; Kvaratskhelia, Raspadori, Zerbin; Osimhen
Unlike the previous two friendlies, Spalletti made only two changes at the break, replacing Ndombele with Gianluca Gaetano and Elmas with Alessio Zerbin.
Villarreal took control of the match in the second half, with three shot attempts – all from outside the area – in the opening six minutes.
Spalletti made three additional substitutions at the hour mark, replacing Jesus, Lobotka and Osimhen with Alessandro Zanoli, Diego Demme and Giovanni Simeone, respectively. With Amir Rrahmani and Kim Min-jae still out of the squad, Østigård shifted to the left side of the centre back pairing and Di Lorenzo shifted to over to centre back.
Di Lorenzo’s inexperience at centre back showed when Villarreal went back ahead midway through the half. Albiol picked out Baena, who broke the lines at midfield, before playing a perfectly-weighted through-ball to Nicolas Jackson. The striker ran straight at Di Lorenzo before cutting to his left and blasting a left-footed strike into the top corner.
Villareal doubled their lead only three minutes later. Much like Pino in the first half, Diego Demme played an errant pass back and was made to pay. The visitors immediately broke the other way. Pino squared Gerard Moreno, and though the pass was under-hit, the substitute got to the ball before Meret and put it away.
With Napoli down by two, Spalletti made two more substitutions, replacing Di Lorenzo with Benedetto Barba and Raspadori with Karim Zedadka. Moments later, Zerbin made a clever dribble to get past Marcos Sanchez before drawing a foul in the area. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia stepped up to the spot and blasted the ball into the top corner, reducing the deficit to one.
That goal seemed to boost Kvara‘s confidence, as he was very lively for the final ten minutes of the match. The Georgian nearly equalized in the 85th minute after Simone flicked the ball to him in the area, but Aïssa Mandi slid to get a foot on the shot.
Spalletti made his final substitution in the 86th minute, replacing Mario Rui with Matteo Marchisano. A minute later, El Submarí Groguet (The Yellow Submarine) should have added a fourth. Dani Parejo floated the ball over the top to Sanchez on the right wing. He dribbled into the area before cutting it back to Moreno. He played a backheel flick to Arnaut Danjuma, who had only Meret to beat, but somehow missed the target.
Nevertheless, Villarreal held on for the 2-3 victory – Napoli’s first home defeat of the season. The Azzurri will play their final friendly of the winter break on Wednesday against French club LOSC Lille.
Post-Match
Luciano Spalletti spoke to Radio Kiss Kiss after the match.
“We are in good condition, we have developed what we had to show. In terms of quality, we did less, we arrived a little late in terms of team times. We need to do better when we are in possession without giving the ball to a technical team like them, because this takes some effort, which we then paid for. We left some space. We have the attitude of always wanting to press and perhaps we should have waited a few more times not to allow them to play in the open field.”
