Coach Walter Mazzarri's Gemilang Debut, Napoli Beat Atalanta
Napoli won an important victory during the old coach but only Walter Mazzarri made his debut by beating Atalanta 2-1 in the Italian Serie A match at Gewiss Stadium, Sunday, November 26 in the morning WIB.
The perfect first step from Mazzarri who replaced Rudi Garcia was dismissed last week. This is the second period for this 62-year-old coach in Napoli. Previously, he handled The Partenopei from 2009 to 2013 and then moved to Inter Milan.
During four years of coaching Napoli, Mazzarri led the team to become champions of the 2012 Coppa Italia. Napoli are also runners up in the Italian Serie A and Supercoppa Italiana.
Now, he goes to Napoli and immediately faces a difficult task. The reason is, Napoli did an away match by visiting Atalanta's headquarters.
However, the coach, who had stopped by England by taking care of Watford, managed to pass the first test by winning over one of the strong teams in the Italian League.
The victory brought Napoli to third place with points. But then they returned to the rankings after being shifted by AC Milan who won 1-0 over Fiorentina.
The victory over Atalanta made Napoli pocket 24 points. They are seven points adrift of Inter Milan who are at the top of the standings. Napoli are also four points ahead with Atalanta who are in fifth place in the standings.
In that match, Napoli did show their best performance despite playing at home to opponents. Even the reigning champion took the lead when Amir Rrahmani received Giacomo Raspadori's assist to score in the 34th minute.
Only the referee did not immediately approve the goal and reviewed it via VAR. As a result, referee Maurizio Mariani assessed that the Kosovo national team player was in an offside position and his goal was not approved.
However, winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia made no mistake, so he managed to break the deadlock towards the end of the first half.
He managed to escape the control of Atalanta's players and his header crossed the host's goal. The 1-0 score for the visitors for the first half match was over.
Atalanta tried to get up in the second half. As a result, La Dea managed to score a quick goal after Ademola Lookman's strong header which met a cross equalizing the score when the game had only been running for eight minutes.
Hanya, Atalanta malah mengalami penurunan setelah berhasil mengubah skor menjadi 1-1. Napoli yang unggul penguasan bola sempat kembali medominasi.
As a result, they took the lead again after Eljif Elmas broke into Atalanta's goal in the 79th minute. The goal started with striker Victor Osimhen's pass who returned to play after being sidelined due to injury.
SEE ALSO:
The score changed 2-1 for Napoli and they were able to maintain that advantage.
"What I want to say at my first press conference is that it is true that this team dominated all season and played the best football in Europe," said Mazzarri.
"Furthermore, victory in this place against a [strong] team is clearly not easy. This is not an easy game for anyone," he said again.
Mazzarri showed his satisfaction with the victory. Moreover, the team played well which made his debut run smoothly.