Battle at the San Poalo

Napoli V Juventus

This was a the fixture to keep your eyes on, it was the chance for Juve to get a breakaway lead at the top or for Napoli to prove that they are title contenders, it ended with them sharing the spoils and the lead at the top remaining six points. This game did have a bit of bad blood, made more by comments made earlier this year by Claudio Marchisio. The bad blood was felt before the game when the Juve bus was attacked with eggs, stones and even a brick thrown through the window!

The game started with an opportunity falling to the home side, Goran Pandev had a chance with just 13 seconds on the clock, but it went just wide but it did give Gianluigi Buffon something to think about,it clearly showed that Napoli intended to take the three points. However it was Juventus that got on the score sheet with 10 minutes. Giorgio Chiellini jumped ahead of Britos to reach the ball and give Juve the lead.

Despite Napoli having more shots on goal, 8 compare to Juventus’ 5, they didn’t seem to cause much trouble upfront, and many of the shots that they did have were from a distance. Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamsik seemed a little of their game, especially Cavani, with hm missing chances that he would have easily put away.

Through the first half Chiellini and Cavani git in their fair share of battles, the usual shirt tugging from Chiellini and what looked like an elbow to the face by Cavani- but by the end of the game there were hugs all around.

Cavani may not have been the goal threat that he used to be, but Gokhan Inler made sure that it wasn’t a big miss with his long range shot to level the scoring on 43 minutes.  The first half ended with a goal apiece. The second half was more of the same, but with a notable fired up Napoli side, yet by the end of the game it ended with both sides sharing the spoils, with Juve the happier as it means their lead at the top remain intact.

Now Juve will be looking to their game against Celtic, and I hope Antonio Conte has a few words with his team- mainly to Lichtsteiner and Chiellini on grabbing in the box, it’s okay anywhere else on the pitch but in the box you can’t, and if you do that’s all you’ll hear from Neil Lennon!