Sassuolo coach Eusebio Di Francesco regrets his club’s bad fortune following their 2-0 loss to Napoli on Monday.
Injuries to defenders Luca Antei and Paolo Cannavaro forced Sassuolo to make early substitutions. But the Neroverdi kept on attacking, only conceding later in the second half.
“It’s unfortunate when you have to make two changes in the first 20 minutes, when we were already in a great emergency,” Di Francesco told Sky Sport Italia.
“But we could have done more in the final minutes, especially because Napoli were down to 10 men.”
Napoli lost Dries Mertens just minutes after he had entered the pitch. Referee Davide Massa gave Mertens a red card for a questionable late tackle on Simone Missiroli.
But the game had been sealed by then. Zapata’s first goal came as the ball ricocheted off a defenders. Three Sassuolo players crowded around the 23-year-old Colombian, but they could not stop him from shooting.
“We played a good game until Zapata scored, creating several chances,” Di Francesco said. “Zapata’s goal was very lucky, he had seven or eight bounces before kicking it in. But football is made of these kind of incidents.
“Zapata is very talented, devastating in the open field, and we should have been more careful.”
Despite the result, Sassuolo remain in 12th place. Next up are games against Lazio and Juventus, but it’s the shortage of healthy players that bothers Di Francesco.
“What concerns me right now is going to count all the injuries. In January, we sold defenders. We had seven centre-backs and now we only have two left. It seems like someone is playing voodoo.”
