Napoli – Juventus, Getty Images 07 December 2025, 23:40

The opposition of the south and the north. Where else, if not in Italy, is this geographical division felt between the teams within the “elite” division. Within the framework of the fourteenth round, the match in Naples at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium between the local Napoli and the Turin Juventus was rightfully considered the central confrontation. The duel is so historically hot that fans of visiting teams are generally not allowed to attend such meetings in an organized manner.

And here the coaching context for this meeting was quite added. For the first time since the 80s of the last century, coaches who won championship titles at the head of rival clubs met among themselves in Italy. And both Antonio Conte with his promises of eternal love for the “Zebras” and Luciano Spalletti with his “Parthenopeia” tattoo, there was something to talk about with everyone present at the game.

However, the match turned out to be quite even in terms of an emotional battle. There have been hotter ones in the history of this couple. It’s good that this time they decided to focus specifically on the game component and gave a lot of reasons for discussion. Napoli, in particular, started the match luxuriously and quite quickly shut down the opponents in the other half with extremely aggressive pressing. And eventually scored a quick ball in the seventh minute as proof that the game plan worked.

Neres followed up Di Lorenzo’s pass to the right wing of the free-kick with a close cross for Goilunn, who put the ball into the net on the tackle. It took a long time after that for the Turinese to cross the central line and start offering something to the opponents in return. At the same time, Juve’s attacks were as trivial as possible and nothing interesting to the opponents in the first half, and they created problems in terms of defense.

But Napoli with its standards, mainly in the form of corners, almost called into question the need for a second half in this meeting. Moments too good for extra goals were headers from Di Lorenzo and McTominay, with corners from the left flanking close range, but Di Gregorio saved Spalletti’s team for the first, and the second was saved by the post shortly before half-time.

Obviously, this kind of football could not suit Juve in any way, so the visiting team worked hard to correct the situation after the break. And she succeeded thanks to a vertical attack with Yıldız going to the right wing of the free kick under McKenney’s pass, which ended with a low kick into the far corner. It is interesting that the Turk was used at the forefront of the attack before the break, but this plan failed, so it was necessary to call David for help. And it completely dissolved.

However, all these transformations of the Turin players after halftime still did not bring any benefit in the general context of the result, because in this game McKenney decided to assist not only his teammate, but also his opponent. A sloppy header in the 78th minute when Nerez’s cross from the right wing to the American’s far post resulted in Hoilunn simply tapping the ball into the net from the second floor from a few yards out. And in order to win back this goal, Juve had to use Zhegrova’s moment at the end of the match, but a shot from the center of the penalty area into the left corner was read by Vanja Milinković-Savych, and the guests did not create anything else.

Juventus: Di Gregorio — Kalulu, Kelly, Kopmainers — Cambiazo (Kostic, 71), McKenney, Locatelli, K. Thuram (Zhegrova, 82), Cabal (David, 47) — Conceisan (Miretti, 75), Yildiz (Openda, 76).

Warning: Buongiorno, Beukema – Kalulu