Gennaro Gattuso is hopeful Lorenzo Insigne will be able to recover in time to face Barcelona after an injury during Napoli’s 3-1 win over Lazio. ‘I have the line-up in my mind.’
It was an ill-tempered encounter at the Stadio San Paolo, which erupted into several ugly rows, including on the touchline between the two sets of staff.
“Italian football has changed in its mentality for a few years now, nobody gives you anything for free,” Gattuso told Sky Sport Italia.
Gennaro Gattuso is hopeful Lorenzo Insigne will be able to recover in time to face Barcelona after an injury during Napoli’s 3-1 win over Lazio. ‘I have the line-up in my mind.’
It was an ill-tempered encounter at the Stadio San Paolo, which erupted into several ugly rows, including on the touchline between the two sets of staff.
“Italian football has changed in its mentality for a few years now, nobody gives you anything for free,” Gattuso told Sky Sport Italia.
“I deserved to be sent off today, I freely admit I went too far, a few too many words were exchanged. Unfortunately, both parties ended up taking it up a few notches and the game suffered.
“I haven’t spoken to Simone Inzaghi yet, as it’s better for me to wait until I’ve calmed down, otherwise I tend to do even more damage.”
The victory was overshadowed by a late injury to Insigne, who was practically in tears after pulling up with pain at the top of his thigh.
“Insigne spoke to the doctor, we’ll evaluate it over the next 48 hours when we have the test results. Hopefully, it’s not as serious as we first thought.”
It’s a race against time to recover for the Champions League Round of 16 trip to Barcelona on August 8.
“I have the line-up in my mind, but we’ll have to see how various players recuperate over the next few days. We’ll try to write an important page in the history of this club and this city.
“We have tried a few different things since the lockdown. At times we have ultra-offensive pressing, at others we sit a little deeper. We have do both of those at the right moments of a match.
“Obviously, as the first leg ended 1-1 at home, we have to run a few more risks there. At the start, the team didn’t know how make that initial press, but they’ve got it now.”