With a 4-1 victory over Cremonese on Sunday, Napoli reclaimed first place in the Serie A, aided by two goals in extra time.
After drawing 2-2 with Udinese earlier on Sunday, Atalanta briefly held the league lead, but Napoli reclaimed it with a two-point advantage after their resounding victory in Cremona.
It was pure utopia to think Cremonese could somehow slow the Partenopei’s advance in Serie A when Napoli had such an incredible run of form. In spite of this, Massimiliano Alvini’s valiant team managed to cause quite a few problems for Luciano Spalletti’s team as Cyril Dessers cancelled out Matteo Politano’s opening penalty kick.
Eventually, though, Napoli’s skill and strength prevailed as they added three more goals to their 1-4 victory to seal the victory and maintain their sole possession of first place in the league due to Atalanta’s failure to defeat Udinese.
After less than two minutes, Amir Rrhamani’s brutal close-range shot that hit the crossbar was a clear message from the Partenopei. However, the Cremonese were still present and made their voices heard through Luca Zanimacchia’s goal, which he scored despite being offside.
Napoli’s first breakthrough came on minute 24 when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sprinted past Matteo Bianchetti and pressured the Cremonese defender to foul him in the penalty area. Rosario Abisso, the referee, was certain there was a penalty and pointed to it. The conversion by Politano was flawless.
In the first half, Napoli’s ball possession peaked at 73%. The only hope for the Grigiorossi appeared to be counterattacks, which also seemed to be Massimilano Alvini’s strategy.
After the break, goalkeeper Radu made a pair of saves from attempts by Giacomo Raspadori and Frank Zambo Anguissa to keep his team in the game. Cremonese appeared to be energised by that because they got themselves back on track just one minute later.
Dessers was the one to bring the Grigiorossi level when he found himself in the path of Santiago Ascacibar’s shot and converted it with a skillful chip. For the Nigerian international, it was his first Serie A goal.
A high-range cross from Mario Rui was picked up by Giovanni Simeone at the far post and headed in after 76 minutes.
In the end, Cremonese let their guard down and ended up ruining their strong performance by giving up two more goals in stoppage time. Hirving Lozano and Mathias Olivera, who came on as substitutes, raised the score to 1-4 and wrapped up another goal for the Partenopei. Napoli showed no mercy.
In three games since the most recent international break, Napoli has scored 13 goals. In addition, fourteen different Napoli players have scored goals since the season began. The statistics for Luciano Spalletti’s Napoli team are astounding. The only question that can be asked at this time is how long they will be able to maintain this level of performance.
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