Napoli sacks Mazzarri two days before the Champions League match against Barca | Football | Kinds of sports

This Monday, Napoli fired its coach, the Italian Walter Mazarri, and announced that he would be the third coach of the season, Francesco Calzone. He is an old friend of the team, who will combine his position with the coach of the Slovak national team until the end of the season and will make his debut this Wednesday against Barcelona in the 1/8 finals of the Champions League.

“I thank Walter Mazzarri, a friend of the De Laurentiis family and Napoli, for supporting the team at a difficult time. He will remain in the hearts of Neapolitans and our family,” said Aurelio De Laurentiis, the club’s president, via X earlier on Twitter. “Welcome back Francesco Calzone, who has already worked with us both with Sarri and Spalletti,” the president added. The situation in Naples this season is unstable. Just two days before the Champions League round of 16, Aurelio De Laurentiis sacked his second coach of the campaign as Mazzarri replaced Frenchman Rudi Garcia to start the season.

Mazzarri was unable to reverse the terrible start of his predecessor, whom he replaced in November, and the recent 1-1 draw with Genoa, achieved thanks to a last-minute goal from Belgian Cyril Ngonge, was the trigger for De Laurentiis. I again seriously thought about changing the coach, despite the risky situation of handing over the team to a coach without time to work before the match with Barcelona.

The situation arose after Mazzarri’s poor results, which did not improve Garcia’s results. Of the 17 games they played, they won only six, drew three and lost eight, which puts the team in ninth place in Serie A, 5 points from European positions and 9 from the Champions League. The defeats also included humiliating eliminations in the Italian Cup against Frosinone (0-4), the final of the Italian Super Cup and the domestic championship against Inter, Juventus, Roma and Milan.

The identity crisis the team is going through parthenopean after the departure of the Italian Luciano Spalletti, the current coach of the Italian national team, who achieved a historic Shield last season, makes itself felt in Naples. The new coach, like Mazzarri and Garcia, had previously been with Napoli. Calzona was the second Italian to Maurizio Sarri, the current Lazio coach, during his time at Naples (2015–2018); and Luciano Spalletti (2021–22) until he got a call from Slovakia in 2022.

During his time as Slovakian coach he managed 14 games, of which he won seven, drew four and lost three, which was enough for Slovakia to qualify for the next European Championship. Now the new leader of the Vesuvius bench is training on Tuesday to get to know the team and prepare for the important match against Barcelona this Wednesday at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

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