SSC Napoli

[El Pibe D'Oro]

We had not beaten Roma in 13 years, another hoodoo ends.

Early days, Catania away in 2 weeks is a tricky one, lets just worry about that.

Super team effort, but this is Lavezzi's best year yet.

[El Pocho Lavezzi]

We had not beaten Roma in 13 years, another hoodoo ends.

Early days, Catania away in 2 weeks is a tricky one, lets just worry about that.

Super team effort, but this is Lavezzi's best year yet.

having a great season to date, hope it continues for pocho.

[Napoli]

There are reports Napoli are preparing a January swoop for Brazil and Lyon star Michel Bastos.

The left-back impressed at the World Cup and had already been heavily linked with a Serie A move during the summer.

Milan, Juventus and Inter were all interested in the 27-year-old, who was declared not for sale by Olympique Lyonnais.

However, it’s reported in the Corriere della Sera newspaper that there has been a meeting between Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis and Lyon patron Jean-Michel Aulas.

Bastos would cost around €15m, but could be moved to a more advanced role if Coach Walter Mazzarri sticks with the three-man defence.

[El Pibe D'Oro]

1-0 up at half time, that man again..... Cavaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiii!!!

[El Pibe D'Oro]

1-1 - Take the point, probably fair result but Cavani missed a sitter in the last minute.

[bapa]

1-0 up at half time, that man again..... Cavaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiii!!!

and what a goal!
went to bed at half time, woke up with the notice of 1-1
must watch second half tonight

[Blue Mastiff]

a. never gonna watch catania vs napoli again. this fixture does my head in year after year.

b. mascara. those buck teeth and every time grava touched him he fell to the ground.

c. zuniga. hall of fame for shite. even his own players werent passing the ball to him when he was free!

d. dossena. never liked the guy but has not put a foot wrong since coming to naples. bravo

e. a lot of tired players on that field.

f. well earned point at catania. almost impossible to go to palermo, catania and cagliari and pick up all 9 points in one season.

[El Pibe D'Oro]

a. never gonna watch catania vs napoli again. this fixture does my head in year after year. - Spot on.

b. mascara. those buck teeth and every time grava touched him he fell to the ground. - Double spot on, he does my head in that c*nt.

c. zuniga. hall of fame for shite. even his own players werent passing the ball to him when he was free! He is totally to blame for the goal, Mazzari's worst decision in a year to bring him on.

d. dossena. never liked the guy but has not put a foot wrong since coming to naples. bravo - Great form, got him for a steal too.

e. a lot of tired players on that field. Cavani and Gargano especially, two games in asia last week, what a joke

f. well earned point at catania. almost impossible to go to palermo, catania and cagliari and pick up all 9 points in one season.

Ill take the point, disappointing because that chance at the end could have given us all three.

[Blue Mastiff]

in unrelated football news.......

The rollercoaster that is the Shark's married life took a new turn last week when he described Kutner as his "fiancee" during a press conference in Naples.

Evert and Norman's 18-month marriage broke down in December, 2009.

[getborn]

Napoli were very lucky v catania, even after cavani could have sealed it near the end.

the internationals were all below par.

hamsik's worst game for a very long time, same can be said for maggio who should have been replaced, not dossena.

if it hadn't been for de sanctis it could have been much worse. morgan for la nazionale.

mister was quite upset after the game and rightly so, the only time napoli showed any resolve was after catania levelled.

looking ahead we have liverpool and milan in the space of four days, somethings got to give and players will need to be rested at some point.

capitano to miss the milan game after the send off.

after an already inconsistent start to the season we could very easily end up off the pace in the space of a couple of weeks if we are not careful.

looking ahead, napoli normally lift for the big ones, fingers crossed this is the case again.

forza ragazzi, facci sognare!

[El Pibe D'Oro]

Getborn is it true you watched the game on TV in Mexico?

[getborn]

Getborn is it true you watched the game on TV in Mexico?

It's true & will be doing the same for Liverpool.

[bapa]

Getborn is it true you watched the game on TV in Mexico?

It's true & will be doing the same for Liverpool.

mate, u should be drinking it up and chasing some mexican skirts!!

[El Pibe D'Oro]

Napoli 1 Milan 2

Missed the first half, but Napoli played second half with 10 players - always dificult against anyone let alone Milan, but great spirit shown and could have snatched a point with a bit more luck.

Lavezzi's goal will possibly be the best of the season. He had no right to score like he did.

[Napoli]

Napoli played crap up until the Milan goal - even worse than how they played against Liverpool. Couldn't hardly string two passes together.

Second half much better though.

[sacred_june (GrooveChild)]

Frustrating that we did start playing until Milan scored. It was a really dramatic change in the game. Why can't we play like that from the beginning???

Also pazienza's red was disappointing. Had we kept 11 on the field I reckon we would have won

[dinozoff]

missed the game but read the commentry on eurosport and watched the highlight reel and imo it looked liked a fantastic game even for a neutral. from what i saw hamsik had a better game and de sanctis had another cracker

[Juventino]

Just watched a replay, and hell even I was getting tense at the end even though I knew the score . An enthralling game that I think would have had a different result had Pazienza not been stupid. Milan were all over Napoli until they scored - it was incredible that Napoli could not string two passes together. They did get better as the half went on and played some good football in the second half with ten men though. Milan were happy to play on the counter, but hey, it worked, they scored another and went on to win.

Lavezzi's goal was incredible.

[Blue Mastiff]

I liked the performance of yesterday, nothing to compare to the bad game played
against Chievo some weeks ago.
Yes, we lost, and I would have preferred a bad game and ..... 3 points !

I liked Yebda and Dimitru (for the few minutes he played) and I hope that they
will play from the beginning in one of the next games against Brescia or Parma.

I didn' like the referee, he didn't use the same attitude towards the two teams.

However football is decided by a few episodes during the 90 min. and yesterday
in my view, the decisive factor was not the red card to (stupid) Pazienza, ma
but the collision between Antonini (late intervention) and Maggio.

Oddo who replaced Antonini made the assists for both the Milan goals.
Moreover also the first goal was scored while we were with 10 (Maggio out for
medications).

Also to be mentioned is Abbiati's performance with some terrific interventions
(with substitute Amelia, we would probably had manage to score one more goal)
and the loss of precision of Yebda and Gargano who had easy chances to score.

Sure, we were hoping in the last minute miracle as in Bucarest or last year
agains Milan, but ......

Lat rest now and try to beat Brescia next Sunday

[Blue Mastiff]

Pazienza handled the ball twice, the second time deliberately. He actually dove
in the direction of the ball and handled it. The letter of the law says thats a
yellow card, regardless of whether he had a yellow to begin with.

Regarding the Lavezzi vs Papa challenge... watch it again. I have watched it 3
times now, and still haven't seen why he called a foul. Lavezzi is very low to
the ground and difficult to knock off the ball, so he often goes into
challenges shoulder first and wins. He knocked Boateng off the ball twice in
this game legally. Versus Papa, who is pretty stocky himself, he simply lost
the battle of strength. If Papastathapolous had extended his arm and pushed
Lavezzi there could be no mistake that it was a foul. In this instance, it was
shoulder to shoulder contact and the stronger player won. Football isn't for
ballerina's. Robinho got knocked on his ass numerous times and I never thought
anything of it. In fact, in the 26th minute Gattuso tries to enter the area and
Aronica (I believe) jumps in the air and turns his back. Rino smacked into him
and fell... it was actually an obstruction, but Rino got up and kept chasing
instead of embellishing. Fair play.

Speaking of Robinho, I don't know what the precedence is regarding video
evidence for that kind of dive. It was a dive. He didn't get hit in the face.
However, in Krasic's case, as well as Adriano's (2007) the dive was to trick
the referee into giving a penalty. Robinho wasn't trying to win a penalty,
probably wouldn't have even received a card as even if he had been caught in
the face it was accidental. The whole thing smells of conspiracy theories,
which seems to always happen when we play Napoli.

regarding pazienza's sending off i dont dispute and didn't dispute it when it
happened but the rules do not say a deliberate handball is a bookable offence,
only a deliberate handball that stops a dangerous attack or to gain and
advantage is a bookable offence, it clearly wasn't a dangerous attack.

however regardless of that do you know what i do dispute? the fact that the
reff influenced this game, 2 minutes before pazienza's sending off robhino
deliberately handled the ball but he wasn't booked! just 2 minutes earlier! he
then kicked the ball away, thats 2 yellow cards, sokratis should have been sent
off, the reff totally conditioned this game, the decisions he made go further
than simple human error a missed penalty call is human error, a wrong offside
is human error, using 2 different rules of judgement consistently for 2
different teams is not simple human error! wasn't happy with milan not giving
us the ball back either when maggio was off the pitch, thats how they got their
1st goal,

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri says his side need to relax in big games...Napoli
coach Walter Mazzarri is disappointed that his side could not play their
regular style of football in the 2-1 loss against Milan on Monday evening.

Mazzarri was also not pleased with the referee, saying there were different
standards for both sides.

"We need to learn to play like a team at the top of the league, and be more
relaxed," Mazzarri told Sky post-match. "We were not ourselves this evening.

"After [Michele] Pazienza received his marching orders, we started to play
better, but I would have preferred to have stayed with 11 players on the park.

"As for the referee? He needed to have uniformity. The same foul needs to be
awarded in the same way for both sides. Instead, when awarding yellow and red
cards, there was none of this.

"I will not say anything else about the referee," he concluded.

[sacred_june (GrooveChild)]

Team line up VS brescia:

---------De Sanctis------------

---Grava - Cana - Campagnaro----

Zuniga - Gargano - Yebda - Dossena

-----Hamsik ----- Sosa ---------

-----------Lavezzi-------------




Game about to start - hope it's a good one - i really should be sleeping instead of watching this.

ps ZUNIGA starting FFS

[getborn]

3 points. thank god.

[El Pibe D'Oro]

Good win, very very tough conditions. Not exactly over impressive, but the main protagonists continue to service the team resulting in a win.

Great play by Hamsik to set up Lavezzi for a simple tap in.

For me Lavezzi has been the outstanding performer of our season so far. His work rate is second to none.

[bapa]

Good win, very very tough conditions. Not exactly over impressive, but the main protagonists continue to service the team resulting in a win.

Great play by Hamsik to set up Lavezzi for a simple tap in.

For me Lavezzi has been the outstanding performer of our season so far. His work rate is second to none.

agree, El Pocho has stepped up after the departure of Quagliamerda!

[dinozoff]

Good win, very very tough conditions. Not exactly over impressive, but the main protagonists continue to service the team resulting in a win.

Great play by Hamsik to set up Lavezzi for a simple tap in.

For me Lavezzi has been the outstanding performer of our season so far. His work rate is second to none.

pretty much sums it up, just praying hamsik can stay consitant cause when the kid is on his game he is a fantastic player to have sitting behind lavezzi.

[El Pibe D'Oro]

Two players I hope we do get and Napoli are looking at are Victor Ruiz, Under 21 spanish captain and Espanyol Centre Back. Will have to pay his 8million Euro recission clause, but by all reports will be well worth it, that way we can sell Santacroce to Juventus and be over with him.

Dinitri Payet (is the other one) of St Etienne is now also on the radar and will cost 11 million.

Miguel Britos is the the other interesting one - Bologna's Uruguayan International Centre back.

We need to shore up the defence.

[sacred_june (GrooveChild)]

Liverpool 3 - 1 Napoli

Disappointing 2nd half to say the least. We were up for it in the 1st half but Gerrard's presence made a huge difference for Liverpool.

Still cant help but feel that we threw it away. Dossena with both a poor decision to pass back to the keeper, then poorly executed to gift Liverpool the goal that ultimately cost us the game. The momentum they took from that goal was too much for Napoli to handle at Anfield.

Hamsik was way to quiet. Cavani too. Lavezzi our only forward who took on defenders.

Strange moves (or lack thereof) by Mazzarri to not make any subs until late on in the piece.

Also RE our formation - it is REALLY underutilising Maggio AND Dossena. Whenever they get the ball it is from a 40m pass that they then have to get under control, normally by which time the full back is in position to defend.

Anyway still in with a chance to qualify, but it's gonna be much harder now - luckily for us Bucharest won in the same fashion Liverpool did, 3-1 after being 0-1 down at HT

[Bomber]

El diego - this team you couldnt stop laughing at (I will remind you, Liverpool). I trust your beloved Napoli could dispose of them quite easily. Oh wait a minute, that didnt happen. Hmmm.......

[Aldo Serena]

Disappointing is an understatement!

Seriously, we are going nowhere if Aronica (or Grava or Cribari) are the third men in a back three.

[bapa]

El diego - this team you couldnt stop laughing at (I will remind you, Liverpool). I trust your beloved Napoli could dispose of them quite easily. Oh wait a minute, that didnt happen. Hmmm.......

Yeah im gutted, to say the least!
Did u actually watch the game, bomber??

But ur team the pooooooo, are still shocking!
at least Napoli fans made alot of noise at anfield, as opposed to poooo supporters at San Paolo!!


ps, our defence is absolutely atrocious!!!!