After a last-gasp win over Genoa, Napoli boss Carlo Ancelotti praised the team’s effort and lauded a big win for the Partenopei.
Christian Kouame opened the scoring midway through the first half, but Fabian Ruiz levelled just after the hour, after the match was stopped for a few minutes due to heavy rain. Then, just when it looked like the points would be shared Davide Biraschi deflected past his own goalkeeper.
“We made a big improvement in the second half,” Ancelotti told the press. “Our attitude changed fans we played in a totally different way.
“Obviously, it wasn’t the first time we made changes, and they give us a bit more of an advantage as when the players feel involved they give their all.
“In the first half, Genoa weree marking the players tightly and we had to change the way we played. They have players who can perform a 70-metre counter attack, like Kouame.”
After 58 minutes of the second half, the match was suspended due to heavy rain, and when the players returned, the pitch was waterlogged down one side making drubbing extremely hard.
“At one point the players knew it was getting difficult to play,” Ancelotti continued. “The referee then made the decision to continue with the game, and that’s where the difference was.
“The [Napoli] players made the difference on a group level. Those were three fundamental points, and if we didn’t get them we would be leaving with a very different feeling from the stadium.”
Napoli’s last visit to the Stadio Ferraris saw them humbled 3-0 by Sampdoria, and Ancelotti feels a lot has changed since then.
“Our awareness of different things has improved since then,” he went on. “We came to play Samp at the beginning of our journey. We are now halfway and must continue to improve.”
