1-0 at the Maradona
Napoli edged out Lecce 1-0 to rack up a fourth consecutive victory in Serie A on Saturday afternoon. Giovanni Di Lorenzo scored the only goal of the game following a corner in 73th minute – his third of the campaign.
This is what Antonio Conte had to say after the final whistle:
“I have few complaints to make about my players today. We had 24 shots, 16 corners and were attacking the whole time. When you're attacking and can't score, it can get frustrating. I told the lads to keep calm because if they kept playing the way they were the goal would come. And it did.
“Lecce defended very tidily and they have skilful individuals who can strike on the counter at great speed, so this match was anything but easy. You expect opponents coming to the Maradona to sit back and wait. We have to get used to that and bide our time so that we can control certain matches.
“I'm happy with the character we showed. We did what we needed to do, which was get the three points, and now we can look forward. We'll enjoy this win then concentrate on the game in San Siro. It's a new situation for us because for the first time we're playing again after three days and we know we're up against a top team in Milan. We're going into it in the right way, having done our duty. That's reassuring for us so that we can carry along this path.
“We're going to be facing top-level opponents in this coming run of games. We'll take each match as it comes and see where we're at, but we already know we're more competitive now than we were. “
Our match-winning captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo also shared his thoughts:
“I'm happy because this match was really important for us. I scored in the first half and it was disallowed but then I managed it in the second half. It was a win we really wanted and we dedicate it to our fans, who got behind us till the end.
“We must keep playing like this, trying to win every game and going into every game with the right determination regardless of who our opponents are. Lecce showed today what a solid outfit they are.”
Napoli 1-0 Lecce (HT 0-0)
Scorer: Di Lorenzo 73.
NAPOLI: Meret; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Olivera, Anguissa, Gilmour (Raspadori 72), McTominay, Ngonge (Politano 57), Neres (Kvaratskhelia 72), Lukaku (Folorunsho 85).
Coach: Conte.
LECCE: Falcone, Pelmard, Gaspar, Baschirotto, Pierotti (Oudin 84), Coulibaly (Rebic 77), Ramadani, Rafia (Pierret 69), Dorgu, Banda (Sansone 69), Krstovic.
Coach: Gotti
Referee: Tremolada (Monza).
Booked: Ngonge, Di Lorenzo, Pierotti, Olivera, Rebic.
