Serie A: Empoli-Napoli LIVE and PHOTO – Football

Empoli.- Napoli on the pitch at 6pm on Saturday 20 April LIVE for the 33rd matchday of Serie A

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LAST NEWS
Napoli regain Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ahead of the match at Empoli. The Georgian winger returned to training with his teammates, demonstrating that he has overcome the gastroenteritis problems that had kept him sidelined. Kvaratskhelia will therefore be able to be on the pitch in the lineup that Napoli coach Calzona will prepare: the objective is to try to keep the possibility of qualifying for Europe open with six matchdays left of the season. Kvara then returns to the attack with Osimhen and Politano, while against Empoli Zielinski seems to confirm himself as the starter, having taken over his place from Traoré, reconstituting the midfield from last championship with Anguissa and Lobotka. In defense the Italian coach knows he has recovered Juan Jesus who will team up with Ostigard, given that Rrahmani is disqualified, as is Mario Rui. Mazzocchi will therefore go to left full-back, given that Olivera remains out due to the adductor injury which he is trying to recover as soon as possible. Despite the terrible performance against Frosinone, Di Lorenzo and his teammates are trying to rediscover the internal motivation to end this season in a dignified manner in which Napoli is currently eighth and is now aiming to climb at least two positions in the table at the end of the season: the the minimum objective is in fact to reach sixth place which guarantees access to the next Europa League, given that the results of these weeks are now confirming that Italy will have five places in the next Champions League. Europe remains the minimum objective to give the new sporting director Giovanni Manna the room for maneuver to rebuild in the summer, starting with the new coach, a team that will return to being competitive in Europe and in Serie A.

EVE

Empoli faces Napoli at the ‘Castellani’, after the defeat in Lecce the Tuscan team tries to move up the table. He does it against the championship team coached by a former player who left good memories with Maurizio Sarri, Francesco Calzona. Empoli coach Davide Nicola explains his team’s moment during the pre-match press conference: “We meet the Italian champions, it’s a great satisfaction to do so – he underlines -. At the moment we are in a position to want to recover that point that we lost Regardless of the opponent we have to give our all. The difference is the desire to fight.” For the coach, “the difference between last year’s Napoli and this year’s is difficult to explain, because it was a perfect machine, with Calzona they are showing the typical movements of that Napoli. We tried to study them in depth”. Napoli who have many weapons at their disposal, not only Osimhen and Kvara, but also Politano: “Politano is a well-known player, I would add Simeone, Raspadori – says Nicola -. They have a lot of quality, they have many strong players available even during the match in progress Napoli have the ability to manage the game, they are strong in attacking, they know how to take risks, they are skilled in lateral attacks and in depth attacks. The important thing is to be convinced that with the help of the department we can be competitive , have the taste and desire to play this match. I personally can’t wait for this challenge.” As for the goalkeeper of Empoli Caprile, owned by Napoli, who will probably play against his future, Nicola observes: “We chose to trust him based on what we saw on the pitch, Vincenzo Sicignano’s training helps him a lot. He must also pass from mistakes, these types of matches help you grow and mature.”

The Napoli coach, Calzona

Last Sunday the revenge against Frosinone, who had eliminated Napoli from the Italian Cup, didn’t work, but tomorrow the Italian team will try again, attempting revenge against Empoli who won 1-0 in the first leg at Maradona. A knockout that made clear the level of Napoli this season and which was also the last game on the bench for Garcia, who was sacked. Since then the bench has changed again with Mazzarri who then made way for Calzona, but the post-scudetto year has remained disappointing: Napoli are eighth in the table, two points behind Atalanta, who however have played one match less, and he is still struggling to feel like he is truly making a comeback towards at least the Europa League. The stimulus is there on paper, but it must be demonstrated, and Calzona worked precisely on this this week, once again in secrecy and without a press conference on the eve of the match. The match on the Empoli pitch resembles the one against Frosinone (which ended with a disappointing 2-2), as it is a team fighting to avoid relegation, but which knows it can try all the way against the Azzurri. The first objective for Napoli is to finally manage not to concede a goal, with Empoli being the team that has scored the least in Serie A so far, with 25 goals in 32 games played. But the answer must come from the Italian defence, which has conceded 40 goals so far: the worst among the top ten in the league. The situation for Calzona is made even more complicated by the men available, given that Mario Rui and Rrahmani are disqualified and Olivera injured: Di Lorenzo will therefore be there together with Juan Jesus and Ostigard, with Mazzocchi on the left, but a lot is also asked of the coach to the midfielders Anguissa and Lobotka, who are no longer able to filter like they did last season. Finding oneself therefore remains the hot topic for Napoli, who aim to win and then play for the sprint with their morale back in the match at Maradona against Roma, in order to continue dreaming of Europe. An objective that seems very distant but which the Politano-Osimhen-Kvaratskhelia trident wants to demonstrate at least that it can pursue, in a city where in reality little is thought about points and much about the reconstruction of the team by De Laurentiis, who from June will say goodbye to Osimhen and at that point it will have around 200 million available, between sales and this year’s income. In the silence of Calzona today the former Italian star Mertens spoke, having returned to Naples for a few days of holiday in the seaside house he kept: “I was in Castel Volturno – he told Prima Tivvù – and I found a nice atmosphere. Even if this year didn’t go the way we wanted, I still believe in Champions League qualification and they must believe in it too. I saw the boys well, I worked with Calzona and I believe in the staff’s philosophy.”

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