Napoli-Cremonese 3-0: Kvaratskhelia, Osimhen, Elmas

From our correspondent Vincenzo D’Angelo

February 12th
– NAPLES

The temperature begins to rise: the 3-0 over Cremonese is worth a night at +16 for Napoli and another day to be written down in history in the name of the goal twins. Kvaratskhelia opens, Osimhen closes. Maximum result with minimum effort, because for long stretches the leaders seemed to suffer from the aggressiveness of the bottom of the class, willing but still very far from the first victory of her complicated championship. The exclamation point is put by Elmas, the twelfth man of this wonderful blue orchestra. In anticipation of tomorrow night’s Inter match, Spalletti is giving another blow to the championship.

The present

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The first chance is for the leaders: Di Lorenzo shoots from outside (6′) and Carnesecchi is good at defusing diving. In the 9th minute it is Cremonese who have a super opportunity with Vazquez, closed at the moment of the serve by an excellent defensive retreat from Lozano. The Cremonese game is far from giving up and in the first quarter of an hour Ballardini’s team collects corners and scares Napoli, even if Meret never worries. In the 20th minute Carnesecchi flies over an air deflection from Di Lorenzo, but it’s only the prelude to the goal which arrives two minutes later. Kvaratskhelia did everything, which he controlled on the baseline, centered and then struck a low shot on the long post, giving himself his ninth center in the league on his 22nd birthday. And in the 28th minute the Georgian came close to doubling his lead by starting the phrasing at the limit and then heading in Di Lorenzo’s cross with his head – but out of proportion. The first grey-red shot comes in the 38th minute with Benassi from distance, but Meret blocks without problems. Before the break, Napoli protested over a Ferrari-Kvara contact: for the referee and the Var it is not a penalty.

With Osi you fly

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Spalletti returns to the locker room thoughtfully: despite the advantage, Cremonese seemed at times more brilliant than her Napoli and the Azzurri made many comfortable supports wrong in setting up. Ballardini comes back with Valeri in place of Ferrari, with the idea of ​​trying to push more to the left from where the Cremonese broke through more easily in the first half. But it is Napoli instead who break through (8′) on that side, with a special slalom from Lozano, on whose conclusion Carnesecchi puts in a corner. Cremonese refuses, Napoli doesn’t push, the first 20′ of the second half go by at a slow trot, then the flash: on the umpteenth corner by Zielinski, Carnesecchi saves again but that’s not enough. Kim stationed at the far post keeps the ball alive and Osimhen can’t go wrong from a meter away. Seventeenth center in eighteen championship games for the Nigerian, top scorer of the tournament and soul of the leaders: he is traveling at a record average, better than him at the moment there is only Higuain in the 2015-16 season. The newcomer Elmas also participates in the party, good at finding the poisonous diagonal on an assist from Di Lorenzo. The rest is academy, with applause and after the change and the catchphrase of “La capolista se ne va” that resounds from the stands. Naples sings, dances and laughs. One brick at a time, the Scudetto dream takes shape more and more.