Andrea Petagna praised Luciano Spalletti after the ‘magical’ night against Juventus in Serie A and said he was ‘convinced’ about staying at Napoli. ‘I hope to contribute’.
The striker replaced Victor Osimhen in stoppages when goals from Matteo Politano and Kalidou Koulibaly secured a 2-1 win over the Old Lady on Saturday.
Petagna was happy about the win and praised new coach Luciano Spalletti for ‘preparing’ the Azzurri for the big challenge against Max Allegri’s side.
“The evening against Juventus was magical,” Petagna told Radio Kiss Kiss Napoli. “Everyone asked us to win.
“We demonstrated to be strong and to have prepared well for the game, Spalletti is great in this regard.
“Now, we need to recharge. The coach is great and makes everyone give their all, he gives us serenity and we perform our best.
“We are a strong team and we demonstrated this last year too, we were lacking something in our character and this season we have added it.
“We demonstrated this with the wins against Venezia, Genoa and Juventus. We are in the Scudetto race, we don’t need to hide.
“The championship is long and we must fight, there are many strong teams. It’s a championship without owners and we can do something beautiful.”
Petagna was linked with a move away from the club, with Sampdoria trying to sign the former Atalanta and SPAL attacker.
“I was convinced of staying at Napoli, that’s what I wanted,” he said. “Because I wanted to play my cards. I hope to contribute in this squad.
“I hope we will recover everyone, [Diego] Demme, [Stanislav] Lobotka and [Dries] Mertens are fundamental players.”
Napoli prepare to play Leicester in the Europa League this week and Petagna looks forward to another ‘big game’.
“Against Leicester it will be difficult, but it’s a very big game,” he said. “The group stage in the Europa League is different this year, because only the first team qualifies.
“We need three points.”