Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri described his team s performance as almost perfect after their 1-0 win over Inter Milan at the San Paolo on Sunday.
Napolo were on top form as they edged Claudio Ranieri s men courtesy of a first-half strike by Ezequiel Lavezzi, holding on until the end despite being reduced to 10 men when Salvatore Aronica was sent off in the 79th minute.
The 50-year-old coach was impressed by the spirit shown by his players, and went on to say that Sunday s performance could have been even better than the 3-1 win against Chelsea last Tuesday.
My guys were almost perfect tonight, Mazzarri said. I told them at half-time that I had nothing to correct, they were perfect both in defence and in attack, and didn t give Inter s players any space to express themselves.
We played very well, I m more than happy with the great performance they put in. All we lacked was more goals, both before the 1-0 and after it. There were a couple of chances we had on the counter-attack.
We played a great game, perhaps even better than the one against Chelsea. Lavezzi has made great strides, he is scoring with more consistency, he has matured and has become a champion.
The win saw Napoli climb to fifth place in the Serie A standings and Mazzarri said he was proud of how far the team had come since his appointment in October 2009.
I am in love with these guys. When our adventure in Naples first started nobody imagined we would come this far, he said.
