From our correspondent Vincenzo D’Angelo
November 3, 2024 (change at 2.35pm) – NAPOLI
The session at the dentist hurts Napoli very much and ignites the fight at the top. A beautiful and very solid Atalanta expels Maradona, imposing the first stop at home on the league leaders after five wins out of five and putting an end to the positive streak of Conte’s team, which had lasted for nine days. Atalanta better in everything, in the approach, in the management, in the quality of the plays. Dragged by a possessed Lookman (double), unstoppable for Napoli like De Ketelaere, always present in the most important actions. It ends 0-3, with a sharp recovery from top scorer Retegui. Maradona applauds and thanks anyway, but the party is all for Atalanta. Gasp has created a mechanism very close to perfection, which seems to have no limits.
super lookman
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Gasp leaves top scorer Retegui to rest – also with a view to the Champions League – and the move removes references to the Azzurri defenders, with Lookman and De Ketelaere who are loose cannons up front. The first danger comes from Napoli with a nice counterattack to the left by Kvara, on whose cross Lukaku is late to serve. But it’s only an illusion, because Atalanta closes every space well and almost hides the ball from the Azzurri. And in the 10th minute the Goddess passes: Ruggeri’s cross put out by Olivera centrally, a serious mistake because Atalanta fuels the action with De Roon and then De Ketelaere extends the header for Lookman: a left-footed volley that leaves Meret no escape. Napoli reacts immediately, McTominay hits the post from the edge. But it’s just an isolated incident. Atalanta is in management and as soon as Napoli opens up, it hurts. De Ketelaere is very good at clearing a ball on the wing and then catching Lookman on the opposite side. Di Lorenzo points, he centralizes and beats Meret again from outside. Before the break Lukaku would have a good opportunity to reopen it, but he loses time for the conclusion and is then blocked by Hien.
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he closes it retegui
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The second half opens with a harmless shot from far away by Kvara, then in the 12th minute Atalanta scores a trio, but Kolasinac is offside on Cdk’s side. Conte tries to change, bringing in Raspadori and Ngonge for Politano and Gilmour and the team switches to 4-2-3-1. The two are immediately in the thick of it: Ngonge wins a free kick, Raspadori bowls it in and Carnesecchi reflexively saves on Buongiorno (21′). Shortly afterwards Neres also comes on for a dull Kvara and later Simeone also comes on for Lukaku, but the match doesn’t change. Indeed, at the end it was the newly introduced Retegui who further mortified the Azzurri defense with a right-footed volley: eleventh center in the championship and Goddess in Paradise. Gasp scores another victory against Maradona and closes to -3 from the top, providing Inter with an assist to return to -1 from Napoli this evening before the direct clash next Sunday. And watch out for the Goddess too: this team lacks nothing to dream big.
