The first friendly in Val di Sole surprisingly rewards the Tuscans, who play in Serie C and score through Pattarello and Varela.
2025 Club Friendlies
0-2
Match Report
Napoli , champions of Italy , made their debut, albeit unofficial, a bitter one: in Dimaro , Serie C side Arezzo prevailed , taking the lead with a goal in each half. Pattarello opened the scoring (thus celebrating his recent renewal in the best possible way) from the penalty spot following a mistake by Lang , who was very positive up front (as was Neres , who hit the post in the second half) but definitely needs to be reconsidered in his defensive phase.
Conte lined up his first Napoli side of the season with a 4-3-3 featuring Meret , Di Lorenzo , Marianucci , Juan Jesus , Olivera , Anguissa , Hasa , De Bruyne , Zanoli , Lucca and Lang .
The latter immediately took centre stage with an initiative to pass to Olivera , who was blocked by the Arezzo defence.
The Dutchman then tried to find Lucca , who shortly after won a challenge but was caught in extremis by Arena. In the 9th minute, Zanoli passed to Lang , who tried in vain to reward De Bruyne 's run , who then dueled with Hasa before launching Lucca : Arena was once again providential. The Tuscans also tried to have their say through Tavernelli , who missed the target with a right-footed shot in the 13th minute.
In the 18th minute, Zanoli broke into the box and set up Lucca, who in turn found De Bruyne , who, from a great position, over-hit his right foot.
The Belgian tried to redeem himself in the 22nd minute, but his right-footed shot wasn't quite what it used to be. Tavernelli responded to the counterattack , but Meret 's left-footed effort required superior reflexes to block it , with Meret doing well to dive in. At the half-hour mark, the tie remained even after Lucca fired a right-footed shot that waned along the way, going wide.
In the 37th minute, the situation broke even, but not as expected: Lang brought down Pattarello , who had performed a clever trick to hide the ball, resulting in a penalty that was then converted by the Bologna youth team product despite the intervention of Meret , who touched the ball but was unable to clear it completely.
In the 42nd minute, Hasa attempted to connect with a corner, but the ball flew wide, while shortly afterward, Lang 's right-footed effort , which had something to atone for, was deflected at the last minute after a fine assist from De Bruyne . It was the final flash of brilliance in the first half, which surprisingly saw Arezzo take the lead.
Napoli returned to the pitch with a different lineup: Contini , Spinazzola , Rrahmani , Beukema , Mazzocchi , Anguissa , Lobotka , Raspadori , Neres , Lukaku , and Zerbin.
Big Rom , in a defensive lapse by the Tuscans, found himself face to face with Trombini , who hypnotized him before repeating his feat shortly after to deny Neres, the protagonist of a double chance in the space of a few seconds.
In the 60th minute, Mazzocchi crossed for Lukaku , who touched it with his thigh without managing to find the right precision. Anguissa 's game was short-lived , replaced by Vergara : shortly after, the Azzurri came close to equalizing with Neres , who, perfectly set up by Lukaku , hit the post.
In the 79th minute, after a slow pace, Neres returned to the forefront with an acrobatic save from a Zerbin cross : the intention was good, the aim decidedly less so. In a second half that was anything but exciting on both sides, with the only Italian player to attempt a save was Neres , though his corner in the 89th minute was weak and easy prey for Trombini .
There were plenty of mistakes, and among the worst was Mazzocchi , who made a terrible header just before the final whistle, setting up Varela 's run-in . Contini tried to deny it, but it was no use, and Arezzo won 2-0 against the Italian champions , whose first outing proved to be below par with their market performance so far.
Line-ups
Napoli XI: De Bruyne, Juan, Di Lorenzo, Meret, Anguissa, M.Olivera, Lang, Alessandro Zanoli, Lorenzo Lucca, Luis Hasa, Luca Marianucci
Subs: Lukaku, Spinazzola, Lobotka, Rrahmani, Nikita Contini, Pasquale Mazzocchi, Neres, Giacomo Raspadori, Alessio Zerbin, Sam Beukema, Lorenzo Sgarbi, Coli Saco, Nosa Edward Obaretin, Antonio Vergara, Claudio Turi, Mathias Ferrante
Arezzo XI: Giacomo Venturi, Marco Chiosa, Filippo Guccione, Camillo Tavernelli, Emiliano Pattarello, Matteo Arena, Lorenzo Coccia, Mattia Damiani, Alessandro Renzi, ettore sani, Concetti M.
Subs: Jacopo Dezi, Nicolò Gigli, Mario Ravasio, Eklu Shaka Mawuli, Muhamed Varela Djamanca, Samuele Righetti, Luca Trombini, Matteo Gilli, Francesco Perrotta, Simone Fiore, Amoris Galli, gabriele ferrara, flavio pulcini