AS Roma Beats Napoli Who Plays With Nine Players

Striker Romelu Lukaku brought AS Roma beat Napoli.(X/@OfficialASRoma)

JAKARTA - AS Roma won 2-0 over Napoli who had to play with nine players in the Italian Serie A match at the Stadio Olimpico, Sunday, December 24 in the morning WIB.

Roma rose to an important victory over defending champion Napoli. A very meaningful victory after Roma lost points in the previous two matches.

The capital team was detained by Fiorentina 1-1 and then lost 2-0 against Bologna. But Roma were finally able to rise when facing a tough opponent.

Victory over Napoli saw the Giallorossi move up to sixth with 28 points. Meanwhile, Napoli, who have 27 points, fell to seventh.

This is the fifth defeat to Napoli's eight matches since being handled by coach Walter Mazzarri who replaced Rudi Garcia last November.

The match between the two teams went tight and attacked each other. But their attacks failed more often because of the solid defense of both teams. As a result, there was no goal in the first half.

In the second half, the situation began to change when Napoli lost Matteo Politano in the 66th minute. Politano was shown a red card for making a mistake against Nicola Zalewski.

The advantages of the number of players were put to good use by Roma. Evidently, Jose Mourinho's troops immediately took the lead through Lorenzo Pellegrini who broke into Napoli's goal in the 76th minute.

When Napoli trailed 1-0, the team lost another player. This time, Victor Osimhen's flagship striker got a second yellow card followed by a red card in the 86th minute.

Napoli were even more difficult when they finished the match. As a result, Alex Meret's goal conceded again when Romelu Lukaku scored in the 90+6 minute. Score 2-0 for Roma to close the game.

Mourinho was satisfied with the result. He even explained that he was sure to win when the game had only been running for a few minutes.

"And you could not agree. But my feeling is right. We are sure to win when the game has only been running for 5-10 minutes," said Mourinho.

However, Mourinho must raise the motivation and enthusiasm of players who are already thinking about the Christmas holidays.

"In the last match before Christmas, players and coaches have lost their mood. I told players, we need to win so we can celebrate Christmas with joy. Likewise fans," he said again.