Neres shines at Olimpico, Napoli catch up with Milan in CL race | OneFootball

It’s Conte’s team that takes the big match at the Olimpico: the Azzurri win 1-0 with the match-winning goal scored by the Brazilian on a counterattack in the first half. In the 90th minute, Napoli’s goalkeeper Milinkovic-Savic was also decisive with a great save on Baldanzi. Napoli leapfrogs Roma and flies to the top of the table with 28 points, level with Milan. Just behind, one point back, are the Giallorossi and Inter.

Gladiatorial Neres at the Olimpico, Azzurri complete the catch-up with Milan

For years, Roma-Napoli was not a title-deciding match. Today, it is again. A throwback to the 1980s. The clash at the Olimpico could have a decisive impact on the league: Roma is looking to strengthen its lead, while Napoli aims to reclaim the top spot after a week that turned tensions and doubts into positive energy.

Just days after the defeat in Bologna, Antonio Conte had let slip a certain unease, as if the Azzurri project was starting to wobble. Then came the wins against Atalanta and Qarabag, which managed to turn the mood around and relaunch their campaign. On the other side, Roma never lost faith, buoyed by the vision and emotional drive of Gian Piero Gasperini. “The Scudetto? Why shouldn’t we dream?” said the Giallorossi coach, aware of his team’s value and the moment they’re in.

On the stage of a match that’s returned to the highest stakes, the real protagonists are them: Conte and Gasperini. Two figures who have influenced Serie A for years, with parallel stories and unexpected intersections. One holds the record for titles won with different clubs, from Juve to Inter to Napoli’s triumph. The other managed to take Atalanta to the top of Europe with a Europa League that left an indelible mark.

Fate could have changed everything: Roma tried to bring in Conte to start their rebuild, while De Laurentiis for years considered Gasperini as a possible head coach for Napoli. And again: both, at different times and in different ways, turned down a return to Juventus. “I gave my word to Roma,” was Gasp’s clear response when Juve came knocking. Conte, on the other hand, was convinced by De Laurentiis thanks to an ambitious project and an internationally significant transfer campaign.

What truly unites them is their ability to influence the group’s psychology. Conte, upon arriving in Naples, found himself facing a captain—Giovanni Di Lorenzo—practically with his bags packed. Today, he’s once again a central leader in the project. Gasperini did the same with Lorenzo Pellegrini, who seemed destined to leave Roma. With both, coach and player “found each other” again, building a new beginning.

The teams we’ll see on the pitch are the exact representation of their coaches:

Roma is vertical, intense, aggressive—a concentration of Gasperini’s style.

Napoli is solid, harmonious, consistent—the synthesis of what Conte asks of his men.

Two philosophies, one formation: the mirror of their differences

Both line up with a 3-4-2-1 or 3-4-3, if you prefer, but the interpretation will be completely different. Because, as this clash reminds us, the formation is just a starting point. The real difference comes from the spirit, the ability to transmit an identity that goes beyond tactics.

And here the value of their careers emerges. Gasperini transformed the three-man defense from a cautious scheme into a proactive and aggressive trademark. Conte, already fourteen years ago, before Juve-Napoli, began a journey that would make that system a dominant weapon, capable of enhancing rhythm, coverage, and verticality.

A match that truly matters

Roma-Napoli thus returns to being a crossroads of the season. A clash that smells of the Scudetto, even though the calendar says there’s still a long way to go. But there are matches that don’t award trophies, yet change the way a league is told. This is one of those. A piece of history passes through the Olimpico. And, whatever happens, nothing will be the same again.

The moment that splits Roma-Napoli comes in the 36th minute of the first half and is the manifesto of Conte’s philosophy: quick reading, ordered aggression, immediate verticality. The move starts with a decisive intervention in Napoli’s final third. Rrahmani anticipates Koné with a clean tackle and the loose ball becomes prey for David Neres.

From here, a counterattack unfolds that seems straight out of a tactical laboratory. Neres accelerates from midfield, gains ground in progression, and chooses to link up with Hojlund in a geometric combination, “a scalene triangle,” to use mathematical terms. The Dane lifts his head and sees the Brazilian cutting behind him, returning the ball with perfect timing.

Neres finds himself in front of Svilar, who had been flawless until then. Instead of opting for the simplest solution, he chooses a masterstroke: a delicate chip, almost a nod to a beloved local tradition, that beats the Giallorossi goalkeeper and finds the net. A technical gesture that celebrates the talent and renewed ruthlessness of the Brazilian striker, who hadn’t scored in two consecutive games since his Benfica days in February 2024.

In the second half, Gasperini tries to change things: Ferguson out, Baldanzi in, and later there’s room for Dybala and El Aynaoui as well. Roma increases the pressure and pushes higher up the pitch, but faces an organized, compact Napoli, able to reduce the danger of Roma’s attacks with density and focus.

Roma’s best chance comes in stoppage time, when Baldanzi strikes a dangerous ball destined for the corner. Milinkovic-Savic, however, responds with the reflexes of a top-class goalkeeper. An intervention that symbolically closes the night and delivers three hugely important points to Conte’s team.

The match summary ROMA-NAPOLI 0-1

ROMA (3-4-2-1): Svilar 6.5; G. Mancini 5.5 (from 62′ c), Ndicka 6, Mario Hermoso 6; Çelik 6, Cristante 5.5 (62′ El Aynaoui 6), Manu Koné 6, Wesley 6.5 (82′ El Shaarawy NG); Soulé 5.5 (62′ Dybala 5.5), Lorenzo Pellegrini 6 (80′ Bailey NG); Evan Ferguson 5 (45′ Baldanzi 6). Coach: Gritti 5.5 (Gasperini suspended).

NAPOLI (3-4-3): V. Milinkovic-Savic 7; Beukema 6.5, Rrahmani 7, Buongiorno 7; Di Lorenzo 7, Lobotka 6.5, McTominay 6.5, Mathias Olivera 6.5; David Neres 7.5 (85′ Lucca NG), Hojlund 7 (80′ Elmas NG), Lang 6 (70′ Politano 6). Coach: Conte 7.

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