Maurizio Sarri’s assistant manager Francesco Calzona admits winning all six Europa League games was “a pleasant surprise.”
The Partenopei are the only team to have won every group phase match and set a new tournament record with 22 goals after their 5-2 victory over Legia Warsaw.
Maurizio Sarri’s assistant manager Francesco Calzona admits winning all six Europa League games was “a pleasant surprise.”
The Partenopei are the only team to have won every group phase match and set a new tournament record with 22 goals after their 5-2 victory over Legia Warsaw.
“It was a pleasant surprise to win the group with six victories out of six. We are satisfied, but the credit goes to the team who worked hard and made everything easier for us,” said Calzona in a Press conference.
“We knew that we had an excellent strike force, but we didn’t expect such a huge difference between goals scored and conceded.”
Napoli let in only three goals and two of them were this evening by Legia Warsaw.
“We don’t man-mark, so watching it back quickly we noticed a few wrong positions on the goals. From tomorrow morning we will correct these small problems so that they don’t happen again.
“The team knows it has to take one game at a time and today we lacked a bit of intensity in defence. It’s a shame about conceding two goals, but that’s ok in the circumstances.”
Nathaniel Chalobah scored a stunning goal in only his second Napoli start, as he is on loan from Chelsea.
“Nathaniel is a young lad who is learning the language and was a bit behind in terms of tactics when he arrived. He needs to improve his intensity in defence and be a bit more concentrated in forward movements too. He needs time to grow.”
The Partenopei host Roma in a Serie A showdown on Sunday.
“We will start preparing tomorrow morning. Everyone is available and we had important responses from those who haven’t played as much. It was a good evening for the individuals too.
“We watched the Roma game with BATE Borisov last night, but as sports fans, not as Coaches.”