Massimiliano Allegri has labelled Arsenal a “great team” after his Napoli side were beaten on Wednesday night. Martin Odegaard’s 75th minute strike settled the Champions League showdown in Arsenal’s favour, though the result only tells half the story. The Gunners were dominant throughout at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, but a succession of missed chances threatened to prove costly in their opening game of this season’s league phase.
Bukayo Saka, Mikel Merino, Piero Hincapie and Noni Madueke were all guilty of passing up golden opportunities before Odegaard came to the rescue. While, Arsenal registered 26 shots to Napoli’s five, at the other end they limited the hosts to an an xG of just 0.22 as David Raya did not have a particularly strenuous save to make. Reflecting on the game, Allegri admits his Napoli side were simply second best on the night.
“Arsenal are a great team. We needed to be patient in not conceding,” he told Sky Sport (via Standard).“We raised our level. We could’ve not conceded and we could’ve scored. “We need to analyse our mistakes. The first half we could’ve done better on a technical level. “But Arsenal put in a great performance to be able to score.
They are a great side.” Giovanni Di Lorenzo, the Napoli captain, then echoed the words of his manager. He said: “They are a fantastic side. We had some potential chances and could have done better. There are seven other games still. “We have to keep working hard and avoid certain mistakes in the future.”