Half smile. Because, well, not losing at home Juventusfor the Naplesit’s always good news. But from what we saw on the pitch, the team of Anthony Conte could have even aimed for a better result. “A draw here is a good result”says the coach from Salento in the post-match, showing however a moderate satisfaction for the point gained in Turin, in the match of his heart, against the team in which he made history first as a player and then as a coach: “For me it was a great emotion. It was the least I could do to thank the fans with whom I shared 16 years of my career. Today I am happy to be at Napoli and I also said goodbye to them. For me coming here is always a great emotion and no one can take that away from me”.
Juventus-Napoli is a lot of tactics and little spectacle: it ends 0-0, with very few goal-scoring opportunities and great defensive organization on both sides. And in fact the best, in the Azzurri house, are the central defenders, stern, and the midfielders, Lobotka above all. More in the shade are Kvaratskhelia and especially Lukaku, at his first negative performance in blue after two games as MVP. “Lukaku still has to get into shape, the condition that I demand”, Conte justifies him in the post-match.
For the occasion, the Italian coach changed the formation for the first time, putting aside the 3-4-2-1 and switching to the 4-2-3-1 with McTominay making his debut as a starter. The result? As we were saying, good defensive solidity but little danger up front. “With the squad we have available, it’s the easiest one also for the alternatives, with the 3-4-2-1 it would have been more difficult. I’m moderately satisfied, we did well at the back but up front we could have made better use of some situations”, explains the coach. Who still has a lot of work to do, but gives the feeling of being on the right path.