Luciano Spalletti declared “even Diego Maradona will have been proud” after Napoli thrashed Ajax 6-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Despite falling behind to Mohammed Kudus’ ninth-minute opener in Amsterdam, Spalletti’s side responded with goals from Giacomo Raspadori, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Piotr Zielinski putting them 3-1 up at the break.
The visitors’ task was made easier after Dusan Tadic’s second-half dismissal; Raspadori and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia increasing the advantage, before Giovanni Simeone sealed an emphatic victory.
Spalletti referenced the late Maradona after Napoli scored six times in a European game for the first time in their history, while Ajax suffered their heaviest defeat in all competitions since November 1964.
“When you go into a stadium like this, with that roar there, it’s not easy to immediately regain the conviction in pressing and recovering after going a goal down,” the Napoli coach told reporters.
“It could have disturbed us a lot, but the team did the things it had to do; they never let themselves be influenced and won a great match.
“More than the result, it is beautiful as the performance shows us our qualities; the boys played important football and will benefit because they have all seen it. They played very good plays, even Maradona will have been proud tonight.”
The record tally of goals in a single #UCL group stage is held by PSG, who scored 25 in 2017-18.
Napoli are 52% of the way to replicating that tally with 50% of their group stage campaign completed. pic.twitter.com/JCcCYgnw0B
— The Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) October 4, 2022
Continuing their perfect start to the competition after making it three wins from three, Napoli are three points clear of Liverpool at the halfway point in Group A, and in the driving seat to reach the knockout stages.
“With this victory, we have excellent chances [to qualify], but we have to achieve other results,” Spalletti added. “What gives context is the quality of the opponents who we produced this performance against, they are a great club.”
