Palermo Claims The South of Italy
Saturday evening’s “Battle of the South” clash at the Stadio Renzo Barbera ended with Palermo claiming southern Italy as their own. Two of the hottest teams within the Italian game were on display. Third placed Napoli traveled to ‘La Isola Bella’ (The beautiful island) to take on one of the hottest rising teams in Serie A, Palermo. The Sicilians have made a very emphatic return to Serie A this season after a slow start and found themselves in a position to win and edge closer to a European place. Napoli have been fantastic since the turn of the new year, but their tripped to their southern sister did not do them any favors in their chase for second place.
We could look off the field and discuss the club presidents and their typical outbursts in the media, but with these two stylish teams on display it is better to focus on the product. Zamparini of Palermo and De Laurentis of Napoli will sure come up with a news story to be covered as the season winds down.
More from Serie A
- Update on Leonardo Bonucci’s legal action against Juventus
- Romelu Lukaku and the betrayal of Inter Milan
- Report: Piotr Zieliński set to sign a new deal with SSC Napoli
- The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?
- Are Napoli finally Scudetto-bound? It sure looks like it
One of the hottest young commodities in Europe was tracking the field tonight for Palermo, Paulo Dybala. The 21 year-old Argentine has been in scintillating form this season in Serie A (11 goals) and is continuing exactly where he left off in Serie B last season. Let us be clear Dybala is not doing all this alone, but is fortunate to be aided by Franco Vazquez, Edgar Barreto, and Andrea Belotti. This has to remind Palermo fans of their days when they boasted players such as, Fabrizio Miccoli, Amauri, Javier Pastore, Edinson Cavani, and Salvatore Sirigu. There is reason for excitement once again on the island, but with rumors circulating around Dybala departing there is also reason for fear.
Napoli fans are already disgusted with the goal surrendered by Rafael that lead to their demise against Palermo. The truth is the first goal scored by Achraf Lazaar should never be allowed to occur at this level. When your left back is netting the ball from a distance of over 35 yards then you have to think something was in the air tonight. If the air was lacking something then I’m sure Rafael’s Powerade bottle wasn’t. That was just the beginning of a miserable night for the Neopolitans. Possession dominance over the Sicilians was not enough for Napoli. They couldn’t muster a goal until their big January coup, Manolo Gabbiadini scored a gorgeous back-heel shot.
However, the ultimate “team goal” has to be handed to the link-up play between Franco Vazquez, Paulo Dybala, and Luca Rigoni in the perfect counter-attack. If you missed this goal then you might want to put it on replay or up on a projector somewhere for everyone to see. Napoli’s biggest problem has always been in the defensive half and today’s loss emphasized that even more.
This game isn’t as much about Napoli stubbing their toes whenever a big clash comes on their fixture list, but more about a Palermo team that rebounded after a tough loss to Inter Milan. Palermo have been a team that deserves praise. They would provide Serie A an honorable representative in Europe next season should they qualify for either the Europa League or Champions League. Things in the South of Italy are heating up as spring approaches and Palermo is packing all the beauty of Sicily with its beautiful play wherever they travel to play.
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