Napoli coach Massimiliano Allegri confirmed that correcting his team's path in the Italian Football League remains the most important, noting at the same time that the club's fate in the Champions League is still in his hands.
Napoli is preparing to play an away match against Porto of Portugal at the Dragao Stadium on Wednesday in the fourth round of the Champions League.
Allegri will return to lead his team from the bench after missing two Italian League matches due to suspension.
During his absence, Napoli beat Monza with a score of 4-1, and lost to Juventus with a score of 0-2, leaving the team in tenth place in the standings with 14 points.
In the Champions League, the Italian team has 3 points after two losses in the first two rounds, then a 4/3 victory over Norwegian Bodo Glimt.
“It will be a difficult match,” Allegri said in a press conference on Tuesday. “Porto has achieved 10 consecutive victories in the league, and is performing well in the Champions League.”
The Italian coach added: “There is no point in talking a lot. Rather, we must provide a distinguished performance. Our fate is in our hands in the Champions League. “We will guarantee qualification for the knockout rounds if we get 10 points, but correcting our path in the league is the most important thing to me.”
He pointed out, "The Porto match will not be our last chance. Rather, it will be an important confrontation, as will the Manchester match, and we will fight to qualify against Club Brugge, Viking and Sabah."
Allegri refused to link the large number of injuries among Napoli's ranks to the easing of pressure on his team, saying: "An important match awaits us in the Champions League against a strong competitor."
Massimiliano Allegri concluded his statements by saying: “There is no room for excuses or justifications. We must continue working, recovering the injured, and turning this negative period into a positive one.”
German tennis legend Boris Becker ruled out the possibility of coaching his compatriot Alexander Zverev, due to the current world number one's family controlling his coaching staff.
Becker said in an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel: “I have to be the decision maker on the field. “Because things won’t work out if a member of the Zverev family has an opinion in Russian, which I don’t understand.”
Zverev, who was born in Hamburg, has been working since his childhood under the leadership of his coach and father, Alexander, and his brother Misha is also actively involved in the career of the German player of Russian origins.
Becker continued: “Those around Alexander Zverev are like a family project, from which everyone benefits in sponsorship contracts and financial prizes.”
Baker (58 years old) continued: “The youngest member of this family is the focus of the project, and for me I could not work in the same way with my father or sister.”
In another context, Baker confirmed that he rules out returning to the training field again for many personal reasons.
Becker won four Grand Slam titles, and had a successful experience coaching Serbian star Novak Djokovic between 2013 and 2016.
The German legend pointed out: “The coaching profession requires traveling a lot on a weekly basis, which is a difficult matter that I impose on my family.”
He concluded his statements: “We will see what happens in 2027, but I will not repeat the experience of leaving my home in August and returning to it again in October.”
Giovanni Malago has officially nominated for the presidency of the Italian Football Federation, which will be held on December 14, to compete with Adriano Galliani, the former official of Milan and Monza.
Malago actually won the elections last June with an overwhelming majority, but the results of these elections were decided to be invalid on October 6, due to his failure to complete the necessary papers and documents to run for this position.
On the same day, it was also decided to assign Malago to manage the tasks of the Italian Federation, to ensure continuity of work until new elections are held with proper legal procedures.
However, some parties that had supported Malago's candidacy the first time changed their position, and now stand with Galliani, such as the Italian players' and coaches' associations.
Malago submitted his candidacy papers on Tuesday, supported by 11 Italian League clubs.
Nominations for these elections will close on November 4.
