It was the 7th minute of the meeting. Lorenzo Insigne took the corner. The Italian exchanged glances as he suddenly ran in front of the defenders to receive the ball. The captain, however, played directly at the opponent’s feet. Their disagreement ended in a counterattack, which was replaced by Jordi Alba.
Napoli – Barca Screen of ViaPlay
Napoli vs. Barcelona ViaPlay (Screen)
A moment later – already in the 13th minute – it was 2: 0 after a beautiful, technical shot by Frenki de Jong. We rubbed our eyes with amazement that he, famous for his great combos, makes so many mistakes. Luciano Spalletti’s players were offended with ineffectiveness and sloppy, especially when playing the ball. – Napoli is doing itself a disservice – Michał Borkowski, ViaPlay commentator, wondered.
And we didn’t believe it when we looked at the statistics. After the first half – which ended with a score of 3: 1 – Napoli players had a passing accuracy of 77 percent. And, unfortunately, it is largely due to Zieliński, who was one of the worst on the pitch. After 45 minutes, he made just 11 passes, and his success was tragic – just 61 percent. In fact, we could praise him for one unconventional heel pass that confused Barca’s midfielders.
But apart from that? It was just colorless. Anyway, as the entire second line of Napoli was clearly weakened by the lack of Stanislav Lobotka and Andre Zambo Anguissa. The midfielders were so sluggish that, irritated by their attitude, Kalidou Koulibaly, despite being a stopwatch, tried to get Stegen under the penalty box.
What happened after the break? Napoli’s flash faded quickly
Spalletti knew there was nothing left to lose so from the 46th minute we saw attacking winger Matteo Politano replacing Diego Demme focusing more on destruction. Initially, this change livened up Napoli’s game a bit. Zieliński also grew lively, who finally started to make the action more dynamic. But when in the 59th minute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – after a perfectly passed ball by de Jong – scored the goal at 4: 1, Napoli completely disintegrated.
In the 70th minute, Zieliński had a good idea to play over the defenders to the free field for Insigne, but the Italians ran to the ball too quickly, so the referee whistled offside. 60 seconds later, Zieliński received the ball just outside the penalty area, but he mixed badly. In the 73rd minute he left the field.
Where did that Zieliński go?
Just a week ago, Napoli drew 1-1 at Camp Nou, and fans and experts melted over Zieliński, the author of the goal. – – wrote Konrad Ferszter from Sport.pl.
On Thursday, the Pole did not deserve applause. He was one of the worst on the pitch. And yet we are talking about the 27-year-old leader of Napoli. From the current national team, only Lorenzo Insigne has more matches for Napoli than Zieliński, who has already played his 288th match. At the stadium of Diego Armando Maradona was overshadowed by de Jong, the hero of the match.
At the end of the game, Politano reduced the size of the defeat by scoring 2: 4. Barcelona will play in the 1/8 finals of the Europa League, and Napoli will focus on Serie A. Neapolitans probably dream of a scudetto, because they only lose two points to Milan. But let them better focus on keeping the TOP 4, because a third season in a row without the Champions League would be a disaster.
Zieliński’s statistics:
Passing: 23 accuracy out of 34 attempts – 74 percent accuracy
Shots (on target): 1 (0)
Duels (Wins): 4 (0)
Fouls: 3
Losses: 13
[Dane za Sofascore.com]
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
