Luciano Spalletti was impressed with his Napoli sides dominant display against Juventus and singled out striker Victor Osimhen for praise. The Partenopei won the match 5-1 in a thoroughly one-sided affair, as the Juve back-line struggled to cope with the movement of the Nigerian international. Speaking to DAZN after the game, Spalletti shared his thoughts on his teams display and what aspect of Napoli’s performance pleased him most:
“The team played a great game, very high pace and that’s what we have to do. It’s a beautiful night because there was a beautiful atmosphere from the fans, this team has been able to recreate this love for these colors and a game like tonight they have to play it and they played in the correct way. If they do what is in their qualities, important results like tonight can be gained.”
Was there any particular indication?
“We stayed inside the game the correct way even in their goal, also thanks to the fans at that moment where Juve had an important reaction. We have to do the same things as always, we have to try to do them because we train for that. If we try to go into these duels, the way we did on the goal, we will lose them most of the time, because it’s just not in our nature, those are not our characteristics. So we need to play the ball. Our DNA is to play like this.”
What aspect of the team made you most satisfied?
“The attitude has to be to play the game, we can do that and we have defenders who are good at playing in the open spaces. Kim and Rrahmani are not afraid to play in the open field, sometimes we have to chase with the whole team because they are wasteful runs. They go after each others lost balls immediately. I am amazed at the potential that Osimhen has not yet put into practice, he is the strongest of all. He becomes devastating on long balls, then in physical challenges he holds his own and has courage to do things. He has broken his face two or three times because he never backs down, he almost always takes risks but he is a footballer who has potential and still has impressive room for improvement.”
How will you celebrate?
“I will celebrate with my children, then tomorrow we train.”
What message do you send to the league?
“To ourselves first, against Juventus we all suffered a little bit because when you played Juventus so many times you go in front of a colossus. What we didn’t have to do was to have the removal of not trying, we commanded the game and deserved the victory.”
