Luciano Spalletti concedes there are ‘no positives’ from Napoli’s 5-2 extra time Coppa Italia defeat to Fiorentina, but wasn’t happy with the two dismissals.
It was a chaotic encounter at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, as the Viola went 2-1 up despite being down to 10 men, then Napoli only equalised after they had Hirving Lozano and Fabian Ruiz sent off.
The Partenopei capitulated in extra time, conceding from Lorenzo Venuti, Krzysztof Piatek and Youssef Maleh for a final 5-2 result.
It means Napoli are eliminated and Fiorentina will face Atalanta in the Coppa Italia quarter-final next month.
Coppa Italia | Napoli 2-5 Fiorentina aet: Piatek seals fiery thriller
“We didn’t do as well as we should’ve done and didn’t manage to control the game when we had the extra man, while Fiorentina dealt with the situation better and then took the lead with a lucky incident,” Spalletti told Sport Mediaset.
“I don’t want to get into the red card situations, because it’s difficult to explain. Lozano tried to pull out of the tackle, so he did end up catching him, but it wasn’t full-on. I don’t understand whether Fabian’s yellow card and the Alfred Duncan foul can be treated the same way.
“Having said all of that, we did have an extra man for half the game and didn’t control it, so the responsibility is first and foremost with us.”
Spalletti was asked if there were positive notes from the evening and is response was rather downbeat.
“I don’t see any, it was all pretty poor. These are the same players who were on the field three days ago, some were coming back after 10 days out. We have to play these same people again in another three days.
“The fixtures are piling up and we don’t have fresh legs to call upon at the moment.”
Victor Osimhen should be back in the squad for Monday’s Serie A match against Bologna, after recovering from COVID-19 and the multiple facial fractures he sustained in November.
“He will be with us on Monday, we need to evaluate how best to use him.”
Petagna sends it to extra time with a stoppage time goal! 😱
Napoli’s 9-men keep the game alive 👀 pic.twitter.com/DQPnAnA2EK
— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) January 13, 2022
This is actually good since Napoli now could focus on Serie A and Europa League.