Napoli have been dumped out of the Coppa Italia on the Spherical of 16 stage after on the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday night, but when something, the loss solely comes to learn Antonio Conte and his staff in the long term, writes .
Lazio 3-1 Napoli: Conte knocked out of Coppa Italia
Conte known as for a heavily-rotated Partenopei facet on the Olimpico on Thursday night time. There was no Khvicha Kvaratskhelia within the beginning XI, no Romelu Lukaku both, nor Matteo Politano, Scott McTominay, Stanislva Lobotka or Alessandro Buongiorno.
Marco Baroni made wholesale modifications to his Lazio staff as effectively, resting the likes of Nuno Tavares, Matteo Guendouzi, Taty Castellanos and Boulaye Dia.
It was the Biancocelesti celebrating come full-time. although, largely in due to Tijjani Noslin’s hat-trick.
The 2 groups are, after all, because of play one another once more in on Sunday night as Conte and his staff look to increase their lead on the high of the league standings and create an even bigger hole between themselves and Lazio, who’re simply 4 factors off the highest after 14 matches.
Coppa Italia defeat: Blessing or a curse for Conte and Napoli?
Although a run within the cup would have lifted morale across the Partenopei camp, and a spot within the closing match would have additionally introduced additional revenues into Aurelio De Laurentiis’s coffers, Napoli’s efficiency in opposition to Lazio goes to point out that the Serie A title continues to be very a lot the precedence for Conte this season.
After an annus horribilis in 2023-24, by which Napoli completed tenth, there isn’t any European Soccer being performed on the Stadio Maradona this season.
With Napoli now out of the Coppa Italia as effectively, Napoli solely have Serie A matches to take care of for the rest of the 2024-25 marketing campaign.
There may be completely no suggestion that Conte deliberately needed to lose within the Coppa Italia, however getting knocked out at this stage at present looks as if extra of a blessing than a curse given the state of the Serie A title race.
Assuming that Inter, Juventus and Atalanta all progress from the Champions League group part, plus Lazio within the Europa League and Fiorentina within the Convention, Napoli may have already performed 10 matches fewer than most of their title contenders this season.
That determine might nonetheless improve relying on ends in the knock-out rounds, and now, Napoli stand up to 3 additional matches off because of getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia.
With the main target now solely on league matches for the rest of 2024-25 and a re-match of types in opposition to Lazio developing on Sunday, will probably be extremely fascinating to see whether or not Napoli can sustain their spectacular run of league outcomes till the top of the marketing campaign.