If Italians were looking to be distracted from a World Cup draw taking place without them on Friday, they had no shortage of options. In fact, some were aggrieved at an excess of watchable TV. Napoli’s game against Juventus had been scheduled at the same time as new episodes of Gomorrah. Such was the outcry that Sky wound up making the latter available on-demand from breakfast time so viewers would not have to choose.
In Naples, this was not truly a dilemma. As popular as Roberto Saviano’s crime drama has become, it could not compete with the biggest game of the Serie A season so far. Napoli-Juventus is always a high-profile fixture, but this edition felt even more consequential than usual. Top of the table and unbeaten after 14 games, the Partenopei could move seven points clear of the reigning champions with a win.
And why shouldn’t they be capable? A team that has played some of the most attractive football in Europe over the last 18 months had more recently added steel to their game. Napoli boasted the joint-best defence in Serie A, and had demonstrated their maturity by recovering from a deficit to win on four separate occasions this season.
Oh, and Juventus were supposed to be turning up without Gonzalo Higuaín. The Argentinian underwent an operation last week after fracturing the third metacarpal in his right hand. Even after he boarded Juventus’s flight to Naples on Thursday, the team continued to bill his participation as touch-and-go.
In the end, of course, Higuaín would find a way into Juventus’s starting lineup – and subsequently on to the scoresheet. Instead, it was the home team that went Awol.
“Napoli, where are you?” demands the front page of Saturday morning’s Tuttosport, above a picture of a celebrating Higuaín. You could forgive the newspaper’s editors for feeling confused after the home team – famous for their sky-blue strip – had turned out for this most high-profile of fixtures kitted out all in black.
In reality, the headline was designed more as a dig at a team whose performance had not lived up to the occasion. There was not yet a quarter of an hour played when Higuaín opened the scoring, running on to a Paulo Dybala through-ball and threading a shot past Pepe Reina. Napoli, despite endless possession, rarely threatened to equalise thereafter.
That was a testament first-and-foremost to Juventus’s defending. This game had been billed as a showdown between two managers of very different approaches: the idealistic Sarri, and the pragmatist Max Allegri – who lived up to his reputation by replacing the adventurous Alex Sandro with the more predictable Kwadwo Asamoah.
Juventus’s cautious 4-2-3-1 became a 4-4-1-1 whenever possession was lost, flooding the midfield and denying Napoli the space to execute those little triangles that have ripped so many defences asunder. They still had their moments but, even then, saves by Gigi Buffon to deny Lorenzo Insigne twice in the space of 60 seconds midway through the first half looked more challenging in real-time than they would on a replay.
Meanwhile, Juventus continued to threaten on the break. Napoli have felt the absence of left-back Faouzi Ghoulam since he tore his cruciate ligament during the home defeat to Manchester City, and his replacement here, Mario Rui, was guilty of getting caught the wrong-side of Higuaín for the goal and on several more occasions thereafter. Reina, meanwhile, produced an astonishing save to deny Blaise Matuidi from close range.
Was this a victory, then, for ‘Maxism’, as Gazzetta dello Sport described it? Perhaps, but it was a victory also for experience: for a Juventus team that has not always played to the highest of its potential this season but which displayed the confidence here of a team which has won the last six Serie A titles.
That, and another victory for Higuaín himself, who remains as ruthless as he ever was at the Stadio San Paolo. Edoardo De Laurentiis, son of the Napoli owner Aurelio, had said during the week that he hoped the striker would play so that “we can stick four goals past him”. Instead, it is Higuaín who has now struck five times in as many games against his former team.
After scoring on Friday, he held his uninjured left hand up to his ear, and then moved it above his brow so that he might seek out De Laurentiis in the stands. “I couldn’t find him,” said Higuaín afterwards. “He must have been hiding.”
Napoli were left only with regrets. “Higuaín is a phenomenon in these situations,” said Sarri. “Juventus are €90m, but three points richer, because he is a phenomenon.”
How they recover from here will define their season. Napoli remain top of Serie A for now, although Inter can overtake them with a win at home to Chievo on Sunday. Of greater concern for Sarri would be a potential injury to Insigne. The forward limped out of Friday’s game late in the second half, and the talk is of a niggling groin injury.
He has played in 60 consecutive games now for Napoli – a figure which reflects both his importance and the reality that Sarri has fewer options for rotating his side than would be ideal for a team chasing success on so many different fronts. The manager has noted this reality all along, repeating often that his team is not truly built to compete for the titles that feel so tantalisingly close.
Nevertheless, he apologised to supporters on Friday. “I’m sad for two reasons,” said Sarri. “First, because we have let down our fans, for whom this match always means a great deal.”
“Then, after that, I felt a personal disappointment at seeing Napoli-Juve played out as greys against yellows. I hoped I would die before such a thing occurred. For those of my generation, who grew up with sticker albums, this was a really painful thing to see.”
So much for Friday night football escapism. With hindsight, perhaps Gomorrah might have made for happier viewing after all.
- Paolo will write a separate Serie A talking points piece on Monday
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Napoli | 15 | 25 | 38 |
| 2 | Juventus | 15 | 27 | 37 |
| 3 | Inter Milan | 14 | 18 | 36 |
| 4 | Roma | 14 | 17 | 34 |
| 5 | Lazio | 13 | 18 | 29 |
| 6 | Sampdoria | 13 | 9 | 26 |
| 7 | AC Milan | 14 | 1 | 20 |
| 8 | Bologna | 14 | 0 | 20 |
| 9 | Chievo | 14 | -4 | 20 |
| 10 | Atalanta | 14 | 2 | 19 |
| 11 | Torino | 14 | -2 | 19 |
| 12 | Fiorentina | 14 | 4 | 18 |
| 13 | Cagliari | 14 | -11 | 15 |
| 14 | Udinese | 13 | -6 | 12 |
| 15 | Crotone | 14 | -16 | 12 |
| 16 | Sassuolo | 14 | -16 | 11 |
| 17 | Genoa | 14 | -8 | 10 |
| 18 | SPAL | 15 | -13 | 10 |
| 19 | Verona | 14 | -17 | 9 |
| 20 | Benevento | 14 | -28 | 0 |
