Napoli beat Feyenoord 3-1 at the San Paolo to get their Champions League campaign back on track.
A first half goal from Lorenzo Insigne set the Partenopei on their way, before Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon sealed the result.
Here’s how Football Italia rated Maurizio Sarri’s men this evening.
Words: Gaby McKay
Pepe Reina – 8
Napoli beat Feyenoord 3-1 at the San Paolo to get their Champions League campaign back on track.
A first half goal from Lorenzo Insigne set the Partenopei on their way, before Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon sealed the result.
Here’s how Football Italia rated Maurizio Sarri’s men this evening.
Words: Gaby McKay
Pepe Reina – 8
The goalkeeper looked close to leaving for Paris Saint-Germain this summer, and has perhaps not been at his best over the past 12 months.
Reina was here though, holding several dangerous looking strikes by Feyenoord before saving a Jens Toornstra penalty.
A fine reaction save from Steven Berghuis, and though he couldn’t keep a clean sheet the Spaniard couldn’t be faulted for his performance.
Elseid Hysaj – 7
Got forward well, and his athleticism certainly caused problems for the Dutch defence.
However, the Albanian’s final ball was lacking this evening, as he failed to pick out Jose Callejon at 1-0 after a fantastic burst down the Feyenoord flank.
Nikola Maksimovic – 6.5
The Serbian replaced Raul Albiol in the starting XI, and will have show more than this to make a starting shirt his own.
While Maksimovic was by no means disastrous, he was far too easily brushed aside for the Feyenoord consolation and didn’t look as sharp on the ball as his teammates.
Kalidou Koulibaly – 6
Koulibaly has been a rock for Napoli in recent seasons, but on a comfortable night for Maurizio Sarri’s side this was a somewhat shaky performance.
A first half booking means he’ll miss the trip to Manchester City, and the Senegal international was all at sea in allowing Nordin Amrabat to spoil Reina’s clean sheet.
Faouzi Ghoulam – 6.5
The left-back was typically dangerous going forward, but gave away a penalty from which the visitors could have scored to make it 2-1.
It may have been a soft spot kick, but Ghoulam was naive in allowing Berghuis to get the wrong side of him in the first place.
Jorginho – 7.5
For most of this match Jorginho did almost nothing of which would catch the eye of the casual viewer, but that is of course the great strength of the Brazilian born Italian international.
Kept the play ticking over in typically metronomic fashion, while making more tackles than anyone but Hysaj. His final tackle of the match robbed Renato Tapia, and the midfielder sent through a perfect pass for Jose Callejon to score.
One wonders if a certain Mr Ventura was watching…
Allan – 7
Sarri’s midfield has an almost perfect balance, and Allan is a huge part of that.
Willing to do the dirty work but also capable of carrying the ball through the Feyenoord press, the 26-year-old complements Jorginho and Marek Hamsik perfectly.
Marek Hamsik – 6.5
The Napoli captain hasn’t been at his brilliant best so far this season, but he looked as though he was really in the mood in the first half here.
Consistently broke into the Feyenoord box, and saw a shot flash just wide of Brad Jones’ far post.
Hamsik faded in the second half though, and was replaced by Piotr Zielinski.
The Slovakian is still justifying his place in Sarri’s XI, but is struggling to find the game changing form fans have come to expect of him.
Jose Callejon – 7
Scored the third and final goal with a precise finish which beat Jones from a tight angle, even if the Spaniard wasn’t as involved in the general play as he or his Coach would have liked.
Dries Mertens – 8.5
As Maurizio Sarri himself said last week, it’s crazy to think just what Mertens could have done playing as a striker for his whole career.
Scored the second goal after some predatory anticipation of Kevin Diks’ awful backpass, and consistently brought his teammates into play with clever touches.
Mertens is one of the best strikers in the world right now, and he was an impact substitute on the wing this time last year.
Lorenzo Insigne – 8
Scored the first goal with a lovely precise finish, and was full of class out on the left throughout.
Insigne possesses a sublime touch, and he used it to great effect in tormenting former Fiorentina man Diks.
Substitutes:
Piotr Zielinski – 4
His most significant impact on the match may have been to hand Insigne his shirt rather than compatriot Milik’s for the Italian’s goal celebration, but his 20 minutes on the pitch were again encouraging.
Marko Rog – N/A
Replaced Jose Callejon shortly after the Spaniard’s goal had effectively killed the game.
Amadou Diawara – N/A
Given 10 minutes at the end and tried to score his first Napoli goal from a free-kick. Emphasis on tried.