AGI – Napoli’s last match of the championship at Maradona ended in a 0-0 draw against Lecce and with boos from the crowd. The Neapolitans finish in tenth place and also say goodbye to the last remaining hope of playing in Europe next season: Torino, beaten in Bergamo by Atalanta, remains ahead and will go to the Conference League if Fiorentina were to beat Olympiacos on Wednesday in Athens. The first offensive outburst of the match comes from Lecce and arrives in the 9th minute with Dorgu responding positively to Krstovic’s invitation and crosses his left foot from the edge, chipping the post. Having escaped the danger, Napoli tried to revive their offensive fortunes with quick but sterile verticalisations which did not worry Falcone. Lecce holds the field well but without limiting themselves to containment, so the hosts, in the 41st minute, risk again capitulating on the restart triggered by Almqvist and concluded by Berisha with a poisonous right-footed shot deflected into a corner, which nails the score at 0-0 first half of the game. In the second half Calzona changes in attack with the inclusion of Raspadori and Ngonge for Simeone and Politano. The coach’s moves give liveliness to the Campania offensive maneuver which, in the 49th minute, engages Falcone for the first time with Ngonge from the edge. Lecce noticeably moved their center of gravity back and, four minutes later, it was Cajuste’s turn to equalize the number of posts hit with an angled shot to the left of the Apulian goalkeeper. The missed opportunity gives intensity to the Neapolitan forcing which, in the 64th minute, materializes with the second wood signed by Ngonge with a great right-footed shot from the edge stopped by the crossbar. The final minutes of the match turned into a back-and-forth of missed scoring opportunities that denied Calzona’s team from ending a season with a victory that was far from the joys of a year ago.
