Roma-Napoli 0-1: Mourinho's team was strucked by a lightning

Osimhen decided the match with a feat that warped Smalling's miscalculation to the point of lethality. It was the only one in an otherwise almost perfect game. As he attempted yet another advance instead of stalling behind his opponent on Politano's cross, with ten minutes left, when the propulsive drive of a deservedly league-leading Napoli seemed tamed. Instead, with this defeat, Roma now is fifth, bypassed by Lazio who beat Atalanta in Bergamo. With a win, Roma would have even been in third place just one point behind the league leaders, and for a good chunk of the first half, the goal even seemed within the reach of the Giallorossi. The difference was made by stamina in the second half (with Naples wider in the squad and fresher, and Roma again missing Dybala and Wijnaldum) and especially Osimhen's grandiose diagonal finish. But Roma still has to wonder about its lack of prolificacy, especially with Abraham starting to become a problem.

The match was a long chess game. It began with the weekly study of the two bench strategists, who were free of European commitments and thus free to spend hours and hours watching film viewing matches of their opponent, until they found a way to dry up every source of play. The result was a match that, in the first half, was balanced and beautiful to watch. This half was agonistically drawn, but devoid of concrete scoring chances, with defenses prevailing over attacks. Mourinho chose a hybrid system between the 3421 of the beginning of the season and the 352 of the last two outings: Pellegrini was the attacking midfielder with a license to vary, and in non-possession, he had to look out for Lobotka, the director of Naples’ 433. On the flanks, it was Karsdorp and Spinazzola's turn (accomplice to a bowel ailment that kept Zalewski at home). In the midfield, Cristante and Camara were particularly at ease in the fiery climates of these challenges. In front, there was Zaniolo with the fury of his best days and Abraham in this year's somewhat confusing version.

The opponents started with Spalletti's usual offensive-driven lineup, with Lozano and Kvaratskhelia on the outside and Osimhen in the middle (with Simeone and Raspadori on the bench), Ndombele deputy Anguissa with Zielinski were acting as intermediates, and Spalletti's tall, well-aligned defense with Di Lorenzo, Kim, the surprising Juan Jesus and Oliveira in front of Meret. The climate of the matches certainly counted in the stands. 61,633 spectators were present, with the emotional remembrance of Francesco Valdiserri solicited by the speaker Vespasiani (and Paola Di Caro with her daughter Daria hugging each other moved the stands). The exchange of greetings and pats on the back among the various VIPs glimpsed in Monte Mario were ever present, from Montezemolo to Malagò, Amendola to Conidi, Paolo Calabresi to Valerio Aprea. There were deafening whistles at the reading of Spalletti's name and every time the technician was framed on the big screens, there was a ready chorus of "Totti Totti-Totti" chanted just to remind everyone who Roma sided with when the time came.

Napoli got off to a strong start at the opening whistle, with Roma still a bit packed, but it was a flash in the pan because after Smalling's deflection into the corner that startled the Sud, roaring as on their best evenings, it was the Giallorossi team itself that took the lead, charged with adrenaline and the desire for a magical evening, with Karsdorp lecturing Tribuna Tevere after a won contrast, Spinazzola running 40 meters backward in a few moments just to go and absorb a dangerous movement by Lozano, Pellegrini chasing every opponent in the middle of the field and Camara providing that dynamic contribution that Matic sometimes lacks. We were talking about the hybrid system used by Mourinho because Pellegrini shielded the play in non-possession and rose up in possession, to act as a true central attacking midfielder. However, he then dropped into the midfield like an intermediate in a three formation to shut down opposition initiatives, for a mega-stall that produced no chances throughout the first half. Of note was only a Zaniolo flare-up in the 6th minute (descent poorly contained on the right by Jesus, return on the left and great shot finished just high). There was also a break by Camara on Ndombele wasted by Abraham, two lefts by Zielinski blocked by Rui Patricio, a right-footer by Kvaratskhelia after a nice duet with Zielinski rebounded by Smalling in a plastic Ter Stegen-like pose. Then in the 38th minute, all of a sudden, an episode that could have determined a turning point in the match and that fortunately, the Var canceled out, when the inattentive Irrati whistled a penalty for a clash between Ndombele (who had won a rebound in the box) and Rui Patricio, with the ball that was clearly turned away from the goalkeeper. The touch, clearly seen by the whole stadium and by Mourinho in particular, had not seemed clear to the Tuscan referee, who needed Di Paolo's Var denial to come to his senses and call it off.

The error must have weighed on the serenity of Irrati, who began handing out yellow cards at every clash at the start of the second half. Karsdorp, who as Mourinho recounted at the end of the game spent halftime on his feet so as not to get his knee locked from partial inactivity, was immediately punished for a foul on Olivera, and Cristante was punished for a kick to Osimhen as he tried to return the ball. Almost as a consequence, Roma also lowered its center of gravity due to the gradually softer pressures exerted on the opponent's first set-up, with the outfielders, instead of getting up on the full-backs, crushing the attackers, causing the team to lose several meters of its center of gravity. Thus Napoli took advantage, gaining ground and allowing its dribblers to approach with increasing danger toward the opponent's area. Already in the 4th minute, Lozano tested Rui Patricio's breakaway skills. In the 8th minute, it was Smalling who instead sacrificed himself on a fine finish by Kvaratskhelia, otherwise well contained to the Karsdorp-Mancini pair. Spalletti inserted Elmas for a confused Ndombele while Mourinho was booked for protest, the same fate befell his Tuscan colleague shortly afterward. At the peak of Napoli's pressure, the defensive skills of Smalling, now on Elmas, were further enhanced. And when a deflection by the Englishman put Juan Jesus in a good position to tap into the net, fate would have it that it was not the former defender who punished the Roma players. It would have been an almost unbearable snub. Abraham was called back to the bench: in came Belotti. Roma shortly afterward built the only dangerous ball of the restart with a low cross by Zaniolo intercepted by Meret in the dive and then finished by Pellegrini for Camara, who arrived at the conclusion with a second left.

On the restart, an erroneous intervention by Ibañez put Osimhen in a position to beat to the net from a lateral position. The shot was too wide and the danger vanished. With the game continually broken up by the random cautions given by Irrati, the decisive moment was thus reached. In the 35th minute of the second half, there was a great Spalletti classic. "His" cross sent in first by Politano, who had just entered in place of the evanescent Lozano, straight behind the defensive line for Osimhen. Smalling had calculated this one well, too. Only his early intervention was held back by a clever move by the opponent who gained the ball before the Englishman and fired an impregnable diagonal shot before Rui Patricio had time to even try to stop it. Panicked by the defeat that suddenly materialized, Mourinho tried to send all his offensive players on the field, drawing a Roma with an unlikely defense with Viña on the right, El Shaarawy on the left, Smalling and Ibañez in the center, Matic and Cristante in the midfield with Pellegrini upfront, plus Belotti, Shomurodov and Zaniolo. A tactical mess that produced no results but only further nervousness, of which athletic trainer Rapetti, who was send off after the final whistle for a brawl apparently caused by Lozano, was the victim.