With a miraculous goal, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia lived up to comparisons to legendary Diego Maradona and has Napoli feeling well ahead of their Champions League matchup with Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Georgia winger has become one of Europe’s hottest properties following an astonishing first season in Naples, the most preternaturally gifted Napoli player since Maradona did his trade in southern Italy in the 1980s.
And now, with 13 goals and as many assists across all competitions, he is poised to lead Napoli to the quarterfinals of Europe’s top club competition for the first time in their history. With Victor Osimhen, he is the star of a truly outstanding team.
The 22-year-stunning old’s goal, which gave Napoli a 2-0 victory over Atalanta on Saturday, was the epitome of his close control and precise play, which have been pivotal numerous times this season.
After a goalless first half, there were some concerns that a spring collapse typical of Luciano Spalletti sides was in store, but suddenly “Kvaradona” sprinkled his star dust. The team had been defeated at home by Lazio the previous week.
In a Napoli counterattack, Kvaratskhelia received a pass from Osimhen, and without any support, he charged the Atalanta defence.
Giorgio Scalvini was forced to slide tackle empty space after his initial feint sent Rafael Toloi spinning, but after already deceiving four players, he cut back inside the confused Toloi and scored at the near post.
Seven Atalanta players were helpless to stop the goal by the time Kvaratskhelia took his shot since he was alone in the penalty area and Napoli was almost certain to win their first Scudetto since 1990.
“He scored a goal worthy of Maradona, this time you truly can say that, looking at the quality of control in such a tight space… when he goes at you, he’s essentially unmarkable,” Spalletti said to reporters after the game.
The incoming champions from Italy take on Eintracht with a 2-0 lead to defend after a thrashing performance in the first leg in Germany and nothing but good sentiments surrounding the team.
Spalletti’s exciting team leads Serie A by an amazing 18 points and is targeting a deep run in Europe. They have a great chance to go to the round of eight.
Napoli’s biggest opponent, according to Spalletti after the first leg, was “to think it is already done,” but everything came together perfectly for his club.
As the knocks sustained by starting goalkeeper Alex Meret and crucial center-back Kim Min-jae before and during Saturday’s victory turned out not to be serious, he should have practically the entire team available for the game on Wednesday.
Randal Kolo Muani, a great striker for Eintracht who has eight goals in 11 games in all competitions since the start of the year, isn’t playing because he was dismissed in the first leg.
Also, the Naples prefecture has prohibited residents of Frankfurt from purchasing tickets on Sunday, so Eintracht won’t have their regular army of away supporters there.
Following an appeal from Eintracht, an initial prohibition on anyone in Germany purchasing tickets that had been imposed on Friday by the Italian interior ministry due to unrest at the first match had been lifted on Saturday.
In response to the most recent decision to restrict ticket sales as a precaution for public safety, Eintracht board member Philipp Reschke declared in a statement that the club would not use any of its allocation.
Two-thirds of our supporters are from beyond the Rhine-Main region and are not from Frankfurt, which is a well-known fact, he stated.
We won’t break ourselves up into postcode areas because there are various methods to actually get around this rule and let some of our fan base into the stadium.
Despite not filling all 2,700 spots, Eintracht is appealing the judgement because “it’s more about the concept for us and how it influences future decisions” due to the timing.
