Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri apologised to the clubs fans after their shock 4-0 defeat to Frosinone in the Coppa Italia. The Partenopei were among the favourites for the trophy this season, but conceded all four goals in the closing 25 minutes of the match. Speaking to the press afterwards, Mazzarri explained why he thinks his team suffered a damning defeat, pointing to the lack of first team players in the starting XI:
“I hope it’s a lesson for the future, from tomorrow we have to look at ourselves and change register. In the meantime I want to apologise to the fans who were behind us until the last minute: I feel sorry for them, they don’t deserve it.
“I don’t like the way we ended the game, tomorrow we’ll all reflect together: it’s OK to concede a goal on a corner when you make changes, then there was the 2-0 incident but even there you have to ‘be Napoli’. It’s not good to end a game like that”.
‘To have gone so badly off the mark, to be demoralised for having made two mistakes after having played well up to that point with those who play less… it’s fine to lose but not 4-0, we looked like a team where everyone goes their own way.
“Probably the starters are less used to coming in. You play a lot, we had important matches…. I don’t know if leaving them on the bench gave a negative signal. But keeping on in all competitions is not easy. We certainly did better when the guys playing less were there, we could even have gone ahead. I was convinced we would win it in the final with the changes. Maybe we thought we had already won it and we underestimated the danger. Losing like that at home without even putting up a fight is not good.”
