David Neres flips Serie A table in 14 seconds: Moment of the Week
There's a simple beauty to a well-executed counterattack that's hard to match, but consider that it flipped the table and it becomes our moment of the weekend.
Fourteen seconds. Three players. The top of the Serie A table flips upside down.
The scene was set brilliantly. At the start of the match on Sunday, AS Roma were leading Serie A: a side showing signs of being revitalised under the underrated genius of Gianpiero Gasperini, trying hard to get past the mid-table mediocrity of the past seven seasons, an attempt backed by the most miserly defence in the land.
Their opponents on the night at the Olimpico were third place SSC Napoli: defending champions, a little disturbed by Antonio Conte being Antonio Conte and ruffling feathers in boardrooms and the dressing room, still chasing hard but hit harder by injuries to key personnel that's forced a change of shape from the title winning 4-3-3 to a make-the-best-of-what-we-have 3-4-2-1.
Napoli had started two points behind Roma, with their own coach comparing his team to a corpse showing no signs of life after a loss to Bologna earlier in the month in typical Conte fashion. But a win against Atalanta last week showed that the relationship between coach and players hadn't frayed into nothingness, and in Rome, their hunger to get back to the top was evident from the start. They forced the play in the early stages, but a combination lacklustre finishing and that defence meant the scoreboard wasn't being affected. Until Amir Rrahmani put in a tackle at the edge of his own box.
Roma's midfield powerhouse Manu Kone tried to force a pass into the box, but it deflected off Napoli enforcer Stanislav Lobotka and bounced invitingly along the boundary of the Napoli box. Kone sprinted after it, but from nowhere, Rrahmani forced his way into the frame, brushing aside Evan Ferguson, starting his slide from a few feet away... and absolutely slamming into ball and man (Kone here). That stopped the Roma attack in their tracks.
Kone tried to prod the loose ball back into possession, but racing onto it was David Neres, from inside his own box. Looking up, he saw that Roma had committed men forward, many men. He motored forward before spotting Rasmus Hojlund peeling wide and making a pass to his right. In the moment Hojlund receives the pass, Neres is a few metres behind him, level with two furiously chasing Roma players.
Hojlund maintains the speed of the counter, sprinting along the wing, forcing Evan N'Dicka -- the lone Roma player in their own half -- wide towards him. As soon as he's out of position, Hojlund pokes it back into the middle, where by now Neres has left anyone chasing for dead.
Two touches to make sure neither he nor the ball slowed down, and he was in the Roma box, dinking the ball above the onrushing Mile Svilar. Fourteen seconds after Rrahmani had crunched into the tackle, the ball was hitting the net at the other end, with only Rrahmani, Neres and Hojlund involved in the move.
There's a simple beauty to a well-executed counterattack that's hard to match, but consider that it flipped the table, sending Napoli second (behind AC Milan only on GD) and Roma fourth (behind Inter Milan only on GD)... and it becomes our moment of the weekend.
