Joe Fischetti

Six Napoli players competed in international friendlies on Sunday:  Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Matteo Politano and Giancomo Raspadori for Italy; Stanislav Lobotka for Slovakia; Leo Østigård for Norward; and Eljif Elmas for North Macedonia.First in 62 YearsThree Napoli players started in Italy’s 2-0 loss to Austria: Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Matteo Politano and Giacomo Raspadori. Though the Napoli contingent played well, Italy as a whole did not. Gli Azzurri were very open at the back and conceded a number of chances to their neighbors to the north.Austria opened the scoring on a counterattack, after Marco Verratti’s claims for a foul fell on deaf…

André-Frank Zambo Anguissa was the only Napoli player in action on Friday. The friendly against Panama was played as 14:00 local time in Cameroon, to prepare the home side for the heat that is expected in Doha during the Group Stage of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Anguissa played the full 90 minutes in the 1-1 draw. The Napoli midfielder was the star of Cameroon's midfield, playing with the same intensity, movement, creativity and intelligence that has made him a fixture of Luciano Spalletti's starting XI. Anguissa had a hand both goals, which happened to be scored in the…

Three Napoli players competed in international friendlies on Thursday: Stanislav Lobotka, Eljif Elmas and Leo Østigård. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia did not play in Georgia's friendly against Morocco, nor did Victor Osimhen play in Nigeria's friendly against Portugal. Not To Be For Calzona Stanislav Lobotka played the full 90 minutes in Slovakia’s highly competitive 2-2 friendly draw against Montenegro. It’s no surprise that under former Napoli assistant, Francesco Calzona, Lobotka played in the same deep-lying playmaker role he plays in at Napoli. The midfielder started the move on the opening goal of the match, playing a perfectly-weighted cross from the left side…

Four Napoli players were in Roberto Mancini's squad for Italy's friendly against Albania on Wednesday. Alex Meret made his first start in goal for the Azzurri. There was little the Napoli goalkeeper could do to stop Ardian Ismajli's header in the 16th minute, but he was solid after that. Meret was particularly busy in the second half, stopping low efforts from Marash Kumbulla, Odise Roshi and Xhuliano Skuka. The shot-stopper made his best save in the 76th minute, when Ermir Lenjani picked out Roshi at the second post. Meret stood his ground and kicked away the shot from a tight…