15th May 2004 Serie B
Napoli 2 Catania 3

In a poor quality football match we were beaten 3-2 by the visiting Sicilians.
Fortunately, there were very few Napoli fans there to witness the embarrassing
spectacle. Our last defeat was on the 18th of March in Vicenza and our last home
defeat was on the opening day of the season against Como. Also, as mentioned in
our News section, Catania hadn't won in Napoli for 44 years. Another piece of
history is chalked up by our under-achieving team. Looking at the game in its
entirety, 3-2 flattered us.
We didn't field a full-strength team due to injuries and the absences of Manitta
and Vidigal were perhaps the most costly. Gennaro Esposito made his San Paolo
debut, taking the place of Montesanto who started on the bench. We played the
usual 4-4-1-1 and this was countered by the classical 4-4-2 employed by Catania.
Almost from the kick-off it was evident that it wasn't going to be our night.
Napoli seemed slow and lacked conviction going forward, a symptom of our season
which has seen us draw 23 games against 10 wins. Catania were by far the more
motivated team and made all the running, and if we were poor going forward, we
were even worse defensively.
We had a couple of opportunities but the game started to go wrong for us when
Portanova was booked for a foul on Berrettoni. The resulting free-kick led to a
Catania corner from which they took the lead. A glaring Marcolin error as he
hesitated gave Terra an easy opportunity to give i siciliani the lead. There was
a muted response from Napoli but the next decisive action saw Tosto leave the
pitch injured after a clash with Montervino. As we were down to 10 men, Catania
doubled their lead. Good link-up play by Giallombardo, Mascara and Berrettoni,
aided by an immobile Napoli defence, allowed Berrettoni to beat Brivio and make
it 2-0. Simoni replaced Tosto with Vieri as we now had to chase the game.
The second-half started but the music didn't change. Almost immediately it was
3-0 to the visitors. Berrettoni picked the ball up wide, beat Carrera and
thrashed the ball past Brivio. At last the sparse crowd had something to
applaud, albeit ironically as their patience was exhausted by this inept
display. However, a minute later it was 3-1 as Perovic easily converted a Vieri
cross. Shortly afterwards it looked as if we had a penalty but the referee chose
to book Carrera for a dive instead. Simoni replaced Dionigi and Marcolin with
Pasini and Sesa and with 10 minutes left Vieri powered a header into the Catania
net, Bernini providing the cross. Only 2 minutes later, referee Romeo awarded us
a very soft penalty and an evening of disaster looked set to turn to one of
jubilation. We had made Catania suffer, we had looked dangerous going forward
and now we were going to equalise! But we didn't. Vieri missed from il dischetto
and the final chance went to Catania who nearly scored!
their
fourth but substitute Fini was denied by Brivio. The final whistle arrived,
amidst a chorus of whistles from the few fans left in the stadium. Our biggest
battle may be the financial one but we can't afford to play like this. Next week
we travel to Florence to play Fiorentina and as we know, those in power are
doing all they can to get them back to A as soon as possible so if we escape
with even a point it will be a miracle. We still aren't mathematically safe from
the nightmare of C1 so we need points immediately. I fear we may have to wait a
fortnight though. As for this match, a night to forget in a season to forget.

NAPOLI: Brivio, Del Grosso, Portanova, Carrera, Tosto (36' Vieri), Bernini,
Marcolin (70' Sesa), Perovic, Esposito, Zanini, Dionigi (68' Pasino)
Coach: Simoni

CATANIA: Mancini, Stendardo, Terra, Alioui, Diliso (85' Zoppetti), Montervino,
Delvecchio, Behi, Giallombardo, Berrettoni (68' Taldo), Mascara (91' Fini)
Coach. Matricciani

Scorers:: 26' Terra, 35' and 49' Berrettoni, 51' Perovic, 81' Vieri
Bookings: Delvecchio, Portanova, Carrera, Taldo, Terra, Zanini
Referee: Romeo from Verona


Lampedusa
from the site of RANGERSNAPOLI