In their first Serie A appearance since the 2012-13 season, Pescara performed admirably against a strong Napoli team and surprisingly they were in front before Dries Mertens rescued a point for the Partenopei.
Pescara v Napoli was expected to be ranked among the most one-sided matches on paper in the opening round of the 2016-17 Serie A campaign but the newly-promoted side demonstrated that they were a competitive side and they secured a draw against the runners-up from the previous season.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about the shock 2-2 draw was that the Abruzzesi were leading 2-0 at the half-time interval thanks to goals from Ahmad Benali and Gianluca Caprari. Delfini coach Massimo Oddo had outcoached his Ciucciarelli counterpart Maurizio Sarri, particularly in the first half.
Sarri’s teams usually play in a compact formation and move the ball at a high tempo but Napoli did not display those qualities against Pescara. The home side made the visitors look slow, disorganised, sluggish and uninspired.
It was the Neapolitans who did the attacking early in the match while the Abruzzesi were sitting back and not willing to play with a high defensive line. Whenever they won the ball, Pescara varied their attacking movements by counterattacking in some moments but also displaying the ability to build-up possession in other parts of the match.
Defensively, Oddo’s side were very solid and easily dealt with most of Napoli’s passes and crosses.
Andrea Coda and Norbert Gyomber provided a wall which the likes of Manolo Gabbiadini and Lorenzo Insigne failed to break though and the midfielders were able to close spaces in the middle of the park. Full-backs Francesco Zampano and Cristiano Biraghi were also given the license to push-up and attack down the flanks.
Although the match reports suggested that Pescara played in a 4-3-2-1 formation with Benali and Valerio Verre playing behind Caprari, the manner in which they actually positioned themselves suggested that Benali and Caprari were the forward duo and that Verre was dropping back to assist the midfield duo of Ledian Memushaj, Gaston Brugman, and Bryan Cristante.
Both goalscorers are not natural strikers but until Mertens came on for Napoli, this was not a major concern for Pescara. Benali was the most creative player in the team with Caprari not far behind and both players were able to link-up with their midfielders.
As impressive as their first half was, the Delfini did not make the same impact in the second half due to the substitutions Sarri made for Napoli. When Mertens and Arkadiusz Milik replaced Insigne and Gabbiadini respectively, it turned things in favour of the Partenopei.
Mertens scored two goals for Napoli in under four minutes and one of them came from an error by Coda in the Pescara defence. Milik did not score on his Serie A debut but he offered more of a threat in attack than the striker he replaced.
In hindsight, it would be easy to say that Sarri got his starting line-up wrong or that his team commenced the game too lethargically but credit should be given to Oddo and his squad for the way they approached the game.
Pescara have played in six Serie A campaigns and have only survived relegation once in their history, which was back in the 1987-88 season. Although a team should not be judged based on one match, the club from the Adriatic coast should against Napoli that they might not be like the easy beats of yesteryear.
