Villarreal recovered the enthusiasm and pride lost in the Champions League at the expense of what is probably the most chaotic team that Massimiliano Allegri has coached in his entire life. The Naples team that visited Castellón did everything that teams subjected to the rigor of this old-fashioned coach are not supposed to do. First he took the lead on the scoreboard, then he became disorganized, and finally he gave away the tie before ending up riddled between bugle calls.
It was a strange afternoon. Péter Gulácsi was left out of the squad for major reasons. A gang of robbers had entered the home of Villarreal's starting goalkeeper in the early hours of Tuesday. Iñigo Pérez decided to give the title to Luiz Junior. The change of the head of the area must have had consequences on the interpretation of certain plays. Villarreal looked vulnerable in all the lateral centers. The goalkeeper hesitated on hanging balls and the centre-backs evacuated with difficulty. It became evident on several plays that the defenders were not deciding whether to man-mark or zone-mark. Eight minutes had not passed when Napoli caused havoc with a corner.
Napoli took a short shot. Gilmour measured the center, Navarro decided to grab his man, McTominay, and Comesaña forgot his man, Rahmani, to throw it offside. Rahmani ended up finishing twice. Luiz Junior's save ended in a rebound and a goal. It was a hard blow. The fans' memory weighed on the 12 games that had passed since Villarreal won the Champions League for the last time, at the Allianz Arena, in the spring of 2022. The public watched the spectacle with a certain fatalism. The players did not seem very affected. Far from being confused, they increased the pressure and the rate of circulation.
Comesaña, Gueye and Saliba became specific partners of Gerard Moreno. With the help of the Catalan striker, a ubiquitous player, free to approach and move away from the play at his discretion, Villarreal was finding spaces. The Naples defense lost its references. Allegri gave orders from the sideline. Gilmour and McTominay failed to adjust until it was too late. Napoli fell back to protect themselves from their own disorder when Badiashile deflected a shot from Mikautadze. The confusion definitively changed the field when after 20 minutes Politano opened the door to the comeback. A pass from the winger to goalkeeper Milinkovic fell short. Easy prey for Mikautadze, who took the ball, dribbled towards the goal and finished with joy and class.
“We entered with a little nervousness but we knew how to recover,” Mouriño said when the evening ended. “The 0-1 was a blow that woke us up.” The young defender from Montevideo spoke with knowledge of the facts. Before half an hour was up, taking advantage of the fact that Napoli's pivots were still unclear, he crossed the field diagonally and remembered his time in baby soccer. Mouriño scored more than 250 goals when he was a child and they played seven against seven. Yesterday at La Cerámica he hit a right foot from outside the area and the ball flew like a bullet hitting Milinkovic's right post. The fans celebrated it like relief is celebrated. The team was having fun for the first time after years of suffering in the Champions League.
Villarreal's goals stunned Naples. Allegri's team is not built to attack without speculation. The need to come back and the interval slogans produced a traffic jam. The ball stopped running. For half an hour the pressures prevailed over any attempt at creativity. Iñigo retired Moreno, Mikautadze and Moleiro, introduced Foyth as a pivot, placed Saliba between the lines and Oluwaseyi up front. Allegri put Lobotka and De Bruyne to lead a desperate attack. Luiz Junior avoided 2-2 in a one-on-one with Hojlund.
Unexpected protagonists, Saliba, Ayoze and Oluwaseyi teamed up in the central lanes to produce the most sophisticated goal of the night. The 3-1 that restored pride to La Cerámica.
