Sassuolo Lose to Napoli, Jay Idzes: Good Play But Can't Score

JAKARTA - Sassuolo again suffered a third defeat in the Italian Serie A competition. In the duel at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Naples, Sunday, January 18, 2026 WIB early morning, Sassuolo had to admit the advantage of the host Napoli 1-0. Defender Jay Idzes said the team played well but the failure to score was Sassuolo's problem.

Sassuolo got a disappointing result. During the last three matches, Sassuolo indeed met top teams that were clearly difficult to beat. How not, the team coached by Fabio Grosso consecutively met Juventus, AS Roma and finally visited the Napoli headquarters.

Despite trying hard, Jay Idzes et al failed to stop the offensive attacks of the teams in the European zone. When hosting Juve, I Neroverdi was forced to surrender 3-0 in front of their own supporters.

Sassuolo tried to bounce back when facing Roma. Again, they lost points after losing 2-0. With a red card in the last two matches, Sassuolo met a tough opponent again.

The defending champion needs additional points to maintain the competition with Inter Milan and AC Milan. Yes, Napoli needs points so that the Milan duo is not left behind.

The result was that Napoli had to work hard before winning 1-0. The home team's goal was created when the match was only seven minutes through Stanislav Lobotka.

The goal started with a kick from Leonardo Spinazzola which could be blocked by goalkeeper Arijanet Muric. However, the rebound ball was then taken by Lobotka. This is the first goal for the Slovakian player during his three years playing in Serie A.

After falling behind 1-0, Sassuolo actually tried to bounce back. They almost equalized when Armand Lauriente was able to control the ball from a long pass.

He had control of the ball before launching a hard shot that could still be thwarted by goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic with one hand. The ball actually rebounded and was about to be finished by striker Andrea Pinamonti. But with defender Juan Jesus managed to hold it so that Sassuolo failed to change the score.

In the losing position, Sassuolo still played openly and was able to match Napoli's game. The defense of the team led by Idzes was also quite solid. They just got unlucky and reaped another defeat. Antonio Conte's team managed to get three points even though they only won one goal.

"We actually played well, both in defense and attack. We should also have scored after getting a number of opportunities. We were also able to withstand the opponent's attack," said Idzes as quoted by the club's website.

"We just failed to score. But the important thing is that we didn't lose confidence, whatever the result. Moreover, we will face two important matches in the future. The competition is still long and we will try to do our best," said the captain of the Indonesian national team.

Meanwhile, Napoli again lost players who were injured. After losing David Neres, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Billy Gilmour and goalkeeper Alex Meret who have not recovered from injuries, Napoli is also threatened by not being strengthened by Matteo Politano and Amir Rrahmani who were injured in the match. Politano himself came in to replace Eljif Elmas who felt unwell so he was pulled out.

"Elmas was shivering. This is probably because of flu symptoms. He is not injured. On the contrary, we still have to check the condition of Politano and Rrahmani. If his injury makes them rest, it is clear that we need additional players. Moreover, there are a number of players who cannot be considered, of course," said Cristian Stellini, Conte's assistant, as quoted by Football Italia.

However, Stellini appreciated the players who still tried to win in a team that was somewhat limp. "We are happy with this victory. We thank the team for still trying to play to the maximum in difficult situations," he said.

"We also don't know how long we will survive with this condition. We don't have many players with a busy match schedule. In my opinion, only Napoli played nine times during January. The match schedule is very tight. By appearing in the Supercoppa Italiana, we played nine times for 28 days," said Stellini again.

The victory over Sassuolo makes Napoli, who still ranks third, have 43 points. The same as AC Milan, who are in second place because they have a goal difference. Inter, who won 1-0 over Udinese, are perched at the top of the standings with 49 points.

Meanwhile, Sassuolo experienced a decline in ranking after failing to score points in the last three matches. They are ranked 12th with 23 points. Sassuolo's points are the same as Torino but they lost by a goal difference.