Napoli head coach Walter Mazzarri has delivered a message of apology to the club’s fanbase, on the back of their embarrassing exit from the Coppa Italia.
The Partenopei marked their return to action a short time ago. Turning focus towards matters in the cup, Mazzarri’s troops welcomed Frosinone to Naples, hopeful of building on an important return to winning ways in Serie A at the weekend.
When all was said and done, however, instead, Napoli were condemned to their biggest defeat of the season to date. Owing to 2nd-half goals on the part of all of Enzo Barrenechea, Giuseppe Caso, Walid Cheddira, and Abdou Harroui, Frosinone marched on to the Coppa quarter-finals, in spectacular style.
This came, bizarrely, only after the evening’s hosts had introduced ‘the big guns’ – Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratschelia – off the bench.
Speaking to Mediaset (via TuttomercatoWeb) post-match, it therefore came as little surprise when the manner of his side’s late collapse was put to the aforementioned Walter Mazzarri.
And the Italian went on to reveal his bemusement with the situation, explaining:
“Perhaps the first choice players are not accustomed to coming off the bench and absurdly we did better with the lads who don’t play as often. We need to reflect on that.”
From here, Mazzarri then issued an apology to the Napoli faithful, adding:
“I want to apologise to the fans, they tried until the end to give us a hand and they did not deserve that. I do not like the way we ended the match and we will reflect on it together tomorrow.
“It can happen that the defensive shape is a little wrong after changes and the second goal was an accidental back-pass, but even when you are 2-0 down, you still have to remember that you are Napoli. It is not acceptable to end a game like that.”
Conor Laird | GIFN
