The Italian coach also spoke about Osimhen who challenged him after the substitution: “I spoke to him, but what I said to him and to the team remains in the locker room”
24 September – MILAN
Napoli does not go beyond a goalless draw against Bologna. Osimhen missed a penalty in the 72nd minute and the Azzurri were unable to break the deadlock: it was the second draw in a row in the league after the 2-2 draw with Genoa. Aurelio De Laurentiis says he is satisfied, “Napoli starts again from Bologna. Well done everyone” reads the post on social media. Rudi Garcia commented on Dall’Ara’s match like this: “The negative point is the result, we didn’t win. The performance was good, especially in the first half. There are positive things, like not conceding a goal with Natan who played a good match. It was the right time to include him. Not conceding goals with a new defense is an excellent starting point. Then if the ball ends up on the post and doesn’t go in or we don’t score a penalty it becomes difficult to win. That’s football. The important thing is that the team played a serious match. We are not happy because we missed the goal and the victory.”
After the missed penalty, Osimhen was replaced in the 86th minute and Simeone came on in his place. The Nigerian striker came out waving towards the bench and complaining about the substitution: “The missed penalty happens to the greatest players in the history of football. I spoke to him, but what I said to him and to the team remains in the locker room. Osimhen remains the penalty taker. When a player leaves he is not happy, we are a squad and we have many players, they all have to be used. He and Kvaratskhelia did well, we have a lot of quality on the bench. Including the three who came in: Simeone, Politano and Elmas. Lindstrom too and Zerbin. We don’t play every game with the same men. Especially because we take the field in three days and we will play four games in nine days. There is the team that starts, the one that continues in the second half and there is also the formation that ends the game. Otherwise we won’t go anywhere.”
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Napoli played a good first half, then in the second half they were unable to capitalize on their chances: “I always hug my players, including Kvaratskhelia. The conversation at half-time was to continue pressing all together. In the first half we recovered a lot balls, it’s true that we were less good at dribbling and getting closer to the opponent’s goal. Even though in the second part of the second half we had the chance to score and got the penalty. We were away from home against a Bologna team who play very well.” Now Napoli has eight points, leaders Inter are seven points ahead: “A team like Napoli must play the Champions League every year. Now, given the championship won and the squad, the Azzurri’s place must be among the top four. We are not there and we cannot be happy with this situation. The team played a good game, now we must not give up and be confident. We hope that already on Wednesday against Udinese we will be able to win. If you go on a streak of successes you recover points in the standings, we need to start doing it.”
September 24, 2023 (modified September 24, 2023 | 9.46pm)
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