Napoli has expertly covered the gaps left by the departures of the team’s captain, all-time leading scorer, and defensive rock in the offseason.
It seems like the southern club develops a new weapon with every game. Reservist striker Giacomo Raspadori scored his first goal for Napoli in the 89th minute of a 1-0 victory over Spezia in Serie A on Saturday, after midfielder Piotr Zieliski’s impressive performance in the attention-grabbing 4-1 triumph over Liverpool in the Champions League.
However, despite everything, we made every effort to get the desired outcome, according to Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti. We can’t always afford to be in these positions, and they were expensive last season, but this is a demonstration of grit, patience, and the conviction that sooner or later we’ll reach the goal.
Unbeaten Napoli is now in first place in the Italian league rankings, one point ahead of Atalanta, which may retake the lead when it visits newly promoted Cremonese on Sunday thanks to a last-second victory at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
The current champion AC Milan, which was playing at Sampdoria later, might possibly tie Napoli for third place in the standings. Since Maradona guided the team to its only two Serie A championships in 1987 and 1990, Napoli is vying for its first league crown. In lieu of the injured Victor Osimhen, the 22-year-old Sassuolo loanee Raspadori started the game, and Spalletti kept him on until the very end despite changing most of his other attacking players. Raspadori put himself in a position to deflect a cross from Hirving Lozano and score inside the back post, demonstrating the success of Spalletti’s choice.
The loan agreement, which required the team to pay 30 million euros ($30 million) to buy Raspadori’s complete rights at the conclusion of the season, was exactly what Napoli had in mind. Raspadori also became Napoli’s eighth different Serie A goal scorer this year, which puts Napoli and Inter Milan on par for the league lead.
