Benitez on 'positive Napoli debut'

By Football Italia staff

Emanuele Calaiò scored twice in Napoli’s 5-1 pre-season friendly win over Feralpi Salò, as Rafa Benitez saw “a positive debut.”

The Partenopei are undergoing a revolution after the departure of Coach Walter Mazzarri and star striker Edinson Cavani.

Benitez started the match using a 4-2-3-1 system with Bariti, Goran Pandev and Lorenzo Insigne fanning out behind centre-forward Calaiò.

Bizarrely, the team arrived on to the pitch in an armoured vehicle to take on the Lega Pro side. Morgan De Sanctis was not present, fuelling reports of an imminent move to Roma.

Calaiò nodded in a Blerim Dzemaili corner to open the scoring, then youth academy product Davide Bariti met Valon Behrami’s cross for a second.

When Pandev’s lob was well saved, Calaiò was on hand for the tap-in, while Dzemaili’s screamer from distance made it 4-0 after 38 minutes.

Insigne was unlucky to hit the woodwork and Soma Novothny turned in from a Marek Hamsik rebound.

Feralpi Salò had a consolation goal from the penalty spot.

“It is a positive debut in our first pre-season friendly,” Benitez told the official Napoli website.

“We did what we wanted to on the field, those things that we practiced during the week in training.

“In general we did good things and others that we can still improve on. We’re happy to have scored five goals and played with intensity after a week of double training sessions.”

Napoli First Half: Rafael; Zuniga, Cannavaro, Gamberini, Dossena; Dzemaili, Behrami; Bariti, Pandev, Insigne; Calaiò

Napoli Second Half: Colombo (Sepe 78); Mesto, Fernandez (Uvini 78), Britos, Armero; Radosevic (Donadel 78), Inler; Callejon, Hamsik, Vitale (Vitale 78); Novothny

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