Como’s Nicolas Paz fights for the ball with Napoli’s Matteo Politano during the Italian Serie A match at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples. PHOTO: AFP <\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
Luciano Spalletti got off to a winning start in charge of Juventus on Saturday as his new team beat Cremonese and their goalscorer Jamie Vardy 2-1.<\/p>\n
Serie A leaders Napoli though could only manage a goalless draw with Como.<\/p>\n
Birthday boy Filip Kostic took just 84 seconds to score the first goal of the Spalletti era, and another close-range finish from Andrea Cambiaso in the 68th minute made sure dominant Juve moved fifth, four points behind Napoli.<\/p>\n
Juve started Saturday’s match just one point above spirited Cremonese, who showed why they sit ninth after being promoted last season.<\/p>\n
Former England international Vardy halved the deficit in the 83rd minute when he held off Federico Gatti before bursting through and confidently rolling home his second Serie A goal.<\/p>\n
“We did well for a good chunk of the first half, then we started to concede too much, and it was the same at the start of the second half… there’s a bit to work on,” Spalletti told Sky Sport.<\/p>\n
“We need to grow, and quickly. We have potential and I trust the players, but the pressure of playing for Juventus can weigh on the players… Some of them struggle with it, but we can work on that.”<\/p>\n
Spalletti was unveiled as Juve’s new man on Thursday following the sacking of Igor Tudor, the 66-year-old signing a contract until the end of the season.<\/p>\n
He comes back into the club game after a nightmare spell in charge of the Italian national team which ended in June after a disastrous title defence at Euro 2024 and a thumping at the hands of Norway in the opening match of the Azzurri’s 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n
But Spalletti showed some of his old taste for the unusual by starting Netherlands midfielder Teun Koopmeiners in defence, a move that largely worked with three centre-backs including Gleison Bremer out of action.<\/p>\n
Juve host Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday as they try for their first win in this season’s Champions League, with Spalletti’s team on two points from three rounds of matches.<\/p>\n
Napoli held<\/strong><\/p>\n For the second time in as many matches goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic saved Napoli’s blushes by keeping out a penalty, this time stopping Alvaro Morata from netting his first goal for Como after bringing down the Spain forward midway through the first half.<\/p>\n That was by far the best opportunity of a cagey, intense contest in Naples which has given Napoli’s rivals the chance to apply more pressure in the battle for the Scudetto.<\/p>\n Roma trail Napoli by a point and can move top with a win on Sunday night at AC Milan who are, alongside Juve and third-placed Inter Milan, four points from the summit.<\/p>\n “It was a very even match, and good to watch because it was played with a bit of edge, we pressed them high and they did the same to us,” said Conte.<\/p>\n “It was a European-style match where neither team sat back in their own area and waited for a counter-attack. Both teams were brave.”<\/p>\n Napoli now turn their attention to the visit of Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday night, with Antonio Conte’s team on three points from their three Champions League matches following a thumping at PSV Eindhoven last month.<\/p>\n Como sit sixth in Serie A, a point behind Juve and the Milan clubs, after extending their unbeaten league run to eight matches.<\/p>\n The tiny club, backed by tobacco giant Djarum, showed an ease on the big stage that has been typical of Cesc Fabregas’ tenure as coach.<\/p>\n “I’m pleased up to a certain point, when you play that well you have to win. But we’ve taken another step forward, playing against the champions and a really good team,” said Fabregas.<\/p>\n Atalanta’s unbeaten record fell with a 1-0 defeat at Udinese in the day’s early kick-off, Nicolo Zaniolo netting the winner five minutes before half-time.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Como’s Nicolas Paz fights for the ball with Napoli’s Matteo Politano during the Italian Serie A match at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in Naples. PHOTO: AFP MILAN: Luciano Spalletti got off to a winning start in charge of Juventus on Saturday as his new team beat Cremonese and their goalscorer Jamie Vardy 2-1. Serie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/napoli1762084647-1\/napoli1762084647-1-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}