First Italian Cup Final: Napoli-Roma
Absences: —
Good/poor form: Francini (+) / Tempestilli (+). Weather: —
Napoli – Roma 3:0 (1:0)
Napoli: Giuliani 6, Francini 9, Baroni 8, Corradini 7, Ferrara 7, De Napoli 7, Alemao 9, Fusi 8, Crippa 7 (74 Renica), Maradona 8, Carnevale 9 (80 Bucciarelli)
Roma: Cervone 5, Nela 4, Comi 2, Berthold 2, Tempestilli 5, Giannini 3, Di Mauro 2 (74 Conti), Gerolin 3, Desideri 3 , Rizzitelli 3, Voeller 4
Goals: 1:0 Carnevale 45+1 min (assist: Alemao), 2:0 De Napoli 60 (assist: Carnevale), 3:0 Alemao 75
(Maradona)
Yellow cards: —/ Gerolin 24, Di Mauro 53, Giannini 90
The first final of the Italian Cup heated up the Neapolitan fans. The first half was quite sleepy (Stoppage time as long as 24 minutes), Roma played from the counter-attack and were closer to scoring a goal: Giannini’s header went past the post. The Romans were not fazed by a rather fortuitous goal for Napoli in added time of the 1st half, Carnevale shot and the ball, after ricocheting off a defender’s leg, fell into the net. In the 2nd half, Napoli’s players tried to create goal situations, but Roma’s defence kicked out dangerous balls. It wasn’t until the 60th minute that Carnevale’s shot was defended by Cervone, and De Napoli had no problem with the rebound. 15 minutes later, Alemao sent a powerful bomb from distance, a shot that could not be saved. 3:0. Napoli took advantage of the Euphoria effect (Francini’s very good form) gaining an extra 11 minutes.
A beautiful match, Roma will have a very difficult task in the rematch.
Player of the match: Alemao (Napoli)
———————-
Italian Cup final, 2nd match: Roma-Napoli
Absences: —
Good/poor form: —. Weather: Drizzle
Roma-Napoli 0:2 (0:1)
Roma: Cervone 5, Nela 5, Comi 4, Berthold 3, Tempestilli 4, Giannini 4, Di Mauro 3, Gerolin 4 (70 Baldieri), Desideri 3, Rizzitelli 4, Voeller 4
Napoli: Giuliani 7, Francini 7, Baroni 7, Corradini 6, Ferrara 6, De Napoli 8, Alemao 6, Fusi 8, Crippa 8, Maradona 8, Carnevale 7 (70 Mauro)
Goals: 0:1 Fusi 10 min. (assist: Crippa), 0:2 Carnevale 51 (assist: Maradona)
Yellow cards: Giannini 23, Di Mauro 43, Desideri 55 / Baroni 9, Ferrara 88
This is not how Roma imagined this match. Napoli were a class better although Roma’s coach and players blame the referee. In the 8th minute Voeller hit the net with his header but the referee did not award the goal, he whistled an offside. Just 2 minutes later the Napoli counter, Crippa’s pass and Fusi goes wild with joy. 0:1. The Romans again resented the referee, as Crippa had earlier caused Desideri to fall. Emotions were mounting, a brutal foul by Giannini on Maradona in the 43rd minute, but the referee did not eject the Roma star from the pitch. After the break, Napoli’s deadly counter attacks continued and Carnevale increased the score to 2:0. The hosts were no longer motivated to attack and there was a scuffle by the sideline after the match.
The 1989/90 Italian Cup for SSC Napoli!
Player of the match: Crippa (Napoli)
Summary of the “Football:Play It Again” tests:
1. there were teams in the cup final that actually dropped out in the semi-finals. Maybe I should think about a small reinforcement of the actual finalists (e.g. +1 to the form of one player)
2. goal average – 1.66 (actually 2.23 in Serie A, 2.00 in the Coppa Italia semi-finals). Maybe a little too low, or maybe I haven’t played enough matches
3. average yellow cards – 4.17 (3.70)
4. average of red cards – 0.33 (0.32)
5. weather – Drizzle affected the first semi-final
6. tactics – Napoli used Counterattacks and did very well on this. I should test this tactic on weaker teams to see if they get such benefits too.
