The first half of Napoli-Lazio ended 0-0a match valid for the fifteenth matchday of Serie A. At the Maradona stadium two tactically well-placed teams have canceled themselves out so far, also due to a few too many errors near the goalkeepers’ areas.
Napoli took to the field with eleven different players compared to the team fielded three days ago in the Italian Cup, nine changes for Lazio which of the eleven that qualified for the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup confirmed only Zaccagni and Dele-Bashiru. The result of this massive turnover is that three days later the two teams began to compete with twenty different interpreters out of twenty-two, the consequence being that we saw a totally different first half compared to Thursday’s. More balanced.
Conte’s team started better, immediately aggressive and dangerous after three minutes with a shot by McTominay blocked with his gloves by Provedel. Lazio soon caught up who, with the wingers on the opposite foot, began to put the home team in difficulty when he continuously took control of the ball. In the 20th minute Isaksen, well-triggered after a nice move, freed the shot from the edge of the area and called Meret into a difficult intervention, also due to a deflection from Lobotka.
The heavy rain that fell on Maradona contributed to raising the level of competitive spirit on the pitch. Frequent clearances and some interventions bordering on the forbidden dominated the first half which saw Napoli regain control of the match after half an hour. In the 33rd minute, a nice play in the Biancoceleste area by Anguissa, but a comfortable intervention for Provedel. Three minutes later, Politano tried with a curling shot from his team but missed the target. The same thing happened to Kvara at the end, directly from a free kick. But in the 45th minute it was 0-0, a fair result so far based on what we saw on the pitch.
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