Napoli have ended Juventus’ 22 match unbeaten streak after a well-earned 2-0 win at the San Paolo on Sunday evening.
The 4-2 mid-week win at Catania was the first time in six Serie A matches that the Azzurri had scored more than one goal, and they continued to show their attacking intent throughout the first-half against Juve with Gianluigi Buffon forced into making two excellent reaction saves to deny Jose Callejon and then Marek Hamsik inside the opening 10 minutes.
Napoli’s wide players were highly influential throughout the first-half and were able to outmanoeuvre the Old Lady on the flanks to great success. Faouzi Ghoulam and Henrique had excellent games with both full-backs advancing high up the pitch throughout the first-half to create several two-on-one situations against the Juventus wing-backs.
Meanwhile, the Partenopei retained possession brilliantly inside the opposition half and were able to get both Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon in behind the Juventus back three with quick cross-field passes switching the play from side to side.
And it was Napoli’s two wide men that combined to open the scoring in the 37th minute. Callejon got round the back of Kwadwo Asamoah to come sliding in and volley Insigne’s floated cross from deep on the left into the back of the net. It was a tight decision over whether he was offside, but the Spaniard was given the benefit of the doubt by the match officials.
The Partenopei sat further back in the second-half, while the Juve wing-backs pushed further up the pitch in an attempt to thwart the numerous first-half attacks down the flanks. But Napoli would go on to seal the game with a great counter-attacking goal.
Substitute Goran Pandev ran onto Pepe Reina’s long throw after catching a Andrea Pirlo corner and then played an excellent cross-field pass to fellow sub Dries Mertens.
The Belgium international had been a surprise inclusion in the squad after spraining his ankle last Sunday against Fiorentina, but he showed no sign of injury as he controlled the ball on his chest and held off Claudio Marchisio to smash an angled drive across Buffon into the far bottom corner.
Despite there being 20 points separating first from third going into the game, the Gazzetta dello Sport had billed the showdown at the San Paolo as ‘The Big Match’ and both sets of supporters showed that the game mattered to them in some unconventional ways.
First, the home fans threw eggs and toilet paper at the Juventus team bus following its arrival in Naples and then pelted bottles at Pirlo when he was trying to take a corner.
Meanwhile according to the online version of Il Mattino newspaper, police confiscated fireworks from a dozen Bianconeri supporters on their way in to the stadium that they had hidden in baguettes.
In addition to eggs and bottles being tossed and fireworks concealed in baguettes, there has also been a war of words between Rafa Benitez and Antonio Conte about the revenue generated by the two teams and subsequent expectations.
In his pre-match press conference the Napoli head coach claimed that Juve have a huge advantage in the Scudetto race due to their larger revenue, which led to the Lecce native launching an attack on Benitez and pointing out that his team has spent considerably less during the last mercato than Napoli. However Conte also conceded that the Azzurri deserved to beat Juventus.
Napoli now have the benefit of a full week preparation ahead of Sunday’s match at Parma with no mid-week European tie. Having previously gone 17 games unbeaten, the Crociati have lost their last two matches and will be without suspended captain Alessandro Lucarelli for the Partenopei’s trip to the Stadio Ennio Tardini.
