Luciano Spalletti was living on cloud nine after Napoli’s dominant 2-0 win over Sassuolo, believing his side performed like a ‘super mature, super attentive, eager team’.
The Partenopei did not struggle in Reggio Emilia, flying to a confident victory thanks to goals from star duo Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Victor Osimhen, who continued to prove themselves as some of the most lethal forwards in European football.
A brief scare came when Armand Lauriente scored in the final stages of the first half, but the goal was ruled out in a contentious offside decision, based on if an offside Grégoire Defrel sufficiently intervened in play when he tripped Mathias Oliveira. Napoli had a goal of their own disallowed for offside in the dying minutes of the match, but it did little to spoil their evening.
Speaking to DAZN after the 2-0 win, Spalletti first reacted to his Napoli side’s performance against Sassuolo.
“You have to take it easy with comparisons, because it becomes a problem. We have to stay calm, very calm. We have to do well the things we know how to do.
“They attacked very well, they had strength in snatching the ball from the opponent, great performance from a general analysis point of view.
“We won the last few games, but there was less quality. Tonight, on the other hand, in possession, in phase management, in being a team in all things, I felt we were superior to the last games and I can codify that in a great performance.”
He provided an update on striker Victor Osimhen, who looked a little concerned when he was brought off in the final stages of the match.
“For what was assessed there straight away, it doesn’t look like anything special, just a bit of tiredness because he can’t spare himself.
“When he has this urge to push, he stretches and does these runs where you don’t know where he;ll end up.
“He says he can hardly do it anymore and will go two metres, then those two metres become two hundred because he goes after everyone.”
The Napoli coach explained the heart-warming scene between him and a disabled Partenopei fan.
“He’s a boy I’ve known for many years, even when I was coaching elsewhere. He’s a Napoli fan and tonight he had the chance to come, I saw him behind the bench, and I greeted him gladly.
“He’s a friend, it’s a normal thing that everyone does, friends go and say hello.”
He touched on his side’s control throughout the match at the Mapei Stadium.
“Tonight we were synthetic in the things we did, we were quick, qualitative in circulating the ball and in creating chances.
“In my opinion we suffered a couple of times because Sassuolo are well coached and play good football, so you can’t have 90 minutes of supremacy and sometimes you have to suffer.
“Then in the second half we came out well, created several chances to make it 3-0. And it turned out that the team performed like a super mature, super attentive, eager team.
“We are living a good moment, but nobody has the presumption to go softer and these are important signals for the future.”
Finally, Spalletti looked ahead to Napoli’s upcoming Champions League Round of 16 clash with Eintracht Frankfurt.
“Eintracht Frankfurt are a strong team, very strong, that have very fast players and tighten up well with the 5-4-1, then reattacking the spaces with speed and with technical players.
“They’re a team that are used to playing for the single match, it means they are more used to playing for the in or out, last year they had experience, playing the final of the Europa League.
“And that’s a little bit what we are trying to do. Sometimes the head thinks in a slightly computerised way, having this advantage leads you to calculate the advantage you have and that’s something you shouldn’t do.
“We have to approach every game as if it were a decisive one. The attitude of approaching every game as a single match gets us used to always being with the mentality in the in or out games.”