CorSport – Hojlund and Neres spark Napoli revolution, stats back it up | OneFootball

CorSport – Napoli, Hojlund and Neres are the architects of the revolution: the numbers confirm it

Hoj Ne. It sounds like the title of an old, splendid song by Pino Daniele, the sixth track from the 1984 album “Musicante,” but instead, it’s the score of a football melody. In a chilly Riyadh, suspended between sunny days and biting winds and others of cold and rain, it’s them who warm up Napoli: Hojlund and Neres. The Dane and the Brazilian, a Scandinavian and a Paulista: a strange pair, but a winning one. Since November 22, the day of the autumn revolution, Conte has paired an Arctic king with a South American ace, and the results have been very convincing: 7 goals between them out of the 11 Napoli have scored in eight matches across the league, Champions League, Coppa Italia, and Supercoppa. But that’s not all. We’re talking about the players on the team who have been involved in the most goals in all competitions since the start of the season: 9 for Hojlund (7 goals and 2 assists) and 8 for Neres (4 goals and 4 assists).

Even on Thursday, in the semifinal against Milan, the signatures were those of the two famous authors. Rasmus, among other things, engineered his teammate’s 1-0: he put it in the middle, but it was Maignan who deflected the assist, then very sloppy in his clearance, gifting the ball to David. In the second half, the center forward struck again: a complete picture, once more them. Always them: the souls of the comeback and the engine of dreams after two consecutive defeats. Each for himself or in tandem, but always at the service of the group: creativity and speed, strength and unpredictability. Together, they make a super player, but one could say they do pretty well on their own too. Pretty well: an understatement. The impact is simply devastating: twenty-six days hammering their opponents, from Atalanta in the league to Milan in the Supercoppa, overcoming a couple of negative days – Lisbon and Udine – and writing attacking stories to remember. With a grand finale in the desert.

Napoli will start thinking about the league and the Champions League again on December 28 in Cremona and January 20 in Copenhagen – let’s say from the start of next week – but first, there’s unfinished business. There’s a journey to complete on Monday at Al-Awwal Park against Bologna: the decisive match to award the thirty-eighth edition of the Supercoppa, Napoli’s sixth since the competition began (1988). It’s possible that Conte might change something compared to the lineup that beat the Devil in the semifinal, but one thing seems quite certain: Neres and Hojlund will once again lead the attack from the first minute. This has already happened seven times out of eight since this breathless cycle of a match every three days began, with the only exception being the Coppa Italia round of 16 against Cagliari, when they came on during the second half.

For the record: Neres is preparing to play the fourth final of his career after the three with Ajax in the Europa League (lost) and the Dutch Cup (two wins). For Hojlund, on the other hand, it will be his third: the previous two both with United in the FA Cup (won) and the Europa League (lost).

Carlo Gioia

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.