Fiorentina – Napoli: Napoli stay perfect with a win against blunt Fiorentina (1-2)

As hosts, Fiorentina welcomed Napoli by commanding possession as they harried Napoli with a press. Napoli were stout defensively and looked to let their individual attacking quality come to the fore. But what both sides shared was a faltering in the final third as not much was created by way of quality chances. Two set pieces and a chaotic post-penalty scramble produced the goals in a game that was quite dynamic despite lacking in cutting edge.
Tactical analysis and match report by Julian Chingoma.

The hosts of this exciting clash were a Fiorentina side on an impressive run which saw them well-placed in the early picture of the European football race. Up to this point, manager Vincenzo Italiano had seemingly removed any doubts as to his ability to meet Fiorentina’s expectations. 

On the opposite touchline stood Luciano Spalletti and his Napoli side were on a spectacular streak themselves, winning six games out of the six to top the league. An away win here would have certainly put a stamp on their credentials as title contenders.

Italiano continued with the 4-3-3 formation. In goal was Bartłomiej Drągowski and ahead of him were Álvaro Odriozola, Nikola Milenković, Lucas Martínez and Cristiano Biraghi. The midfield three were Giacomo Bonaventura, Erick Pulgar and Alfred Duncan while Nicolás González and José Callejón were either side of Dušan Vlahović.

Napoli were in a similar shape as Spalletti deployed a 4-2-3-1 formation. David Ospina was behind the four of Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Amir Rrahmani, Kalidou Koulibaly and Mário Rui. In midfield, André-Frank Anguissa and Fabián Ruiz backed up Piotr Zieliński while Hirving . . .