Most wanted coach Spalletti thinks that Eintracht Frankfurt was the team that played defensively on Tuesday evening and wants to get rid of the old cliché about Italian football.
“I’m happy, even if I’m not smiling,” Spalletti told Sport Mediaset. “The team played a great game. They told us that maybe we play the best football in Italy because football in Italy is bad… Maybe Eintracht played in a more ‘Italian’ way, sitting back and defending. It’s time we got rid of that cliché about defensive Italian football.”
Spalletti guards against self-overestimation after the rather simple say in Frankfurt. The Italian manager continued, “Arrogance is the greatest enemy. We have proven that we belong here, but we still have to earn it in the second leg.”
“We are doing exceptional things under this coach,” said Piotr Zielinksi. “I think we can do well this season and maybe celebrate things that we couldn’t celebrate in years past…”
“I think this was one of Napoli’s best performances of the season,” Hirving Lozano concluded at Sky Sport Italia. The former PSV player was responsible for a nice assist in Victor Osimhen’s 0-1.
Olivier Glasner’s regret following the fixture
“Of course we are disappointed, but we have to accept that the 2-0 defeat is okay,” coach Olivier Glasner concluded at Sky Austria. “We also saw the inexperience of our back line at this level. And after the red card it was of course very difficult and Napoli showed their class. I would have liked to see us more stable when we were outnumbered, but then the 0-2 came relatively quickly.”
Despite the disappointing first part, Eintracht is definitely not throwing in the towel just yet. This is evident from the words of goalkeeper Kevin Trapp at the same Sky. “I think we played a good game and showed our quality on the pitch. Of course Napoli has quality. We know that too and it showed. But we don’t have to hide. We have been able to turn around many games in the past. We are a team that believes in itself. Nothing is lost yet, even if it will be a tough match in Naples. Everyone knows we can do that,” concludes the shot stopper.
