Matteo Politano hopes Napoli can learn valuable lessons from their Europa League defeat to Barcelona. ‘If you don’t work as a team, you will run into trouble.’
The Blaugrana had a 2-0 lead at the Stadio Maradona after defensive errors, including Jordi Alba on the counter-attack from a Napoli corner.
It eventually ended 4-2 on the night, with Lorenzo Insigne’s penalty and a late Politano strike making the 5-3 aggregate result only slightly less painful.
Europa League | Napoli 2-4 Barcelona (3-5 agg): Barca simply too strong
“We made life difficult for ourselves with a terrible start, going 2-0 down within 13 minutes. If you don’t all press Barcelona together, you will have trouble, as they just pass it round you,” Politano told Sky Sport Italia.
“We got back into it with the penalty, but then they scored another right on the stroke of half-time and that knocked the wind out of our sails.
“We realised today that if you don’t stay tight and work as a team, you will run into trouble. Lazio have a similar passing approach, so we need to learn that lesson.
“Fortunately, we have another big game in three days’ time, Lazio are a great side and we need to focus our attention on Serie A.”
Politano came off the bench, as he missed the first leg at Camp Nou with an injury.
“I am not in perfect shape yet, but I’ve been training for a couple of days now and the more minutes I get in my legs, the better I’ll be.”
Take a bow, Frenkie de Jong 😍
Could not have placed it better! A beautiful goal away to Napoli…
Very satisfying net noise as well 👌#UEL pic.twitter.com/jLj0q5Eozw
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 24, 2022