Sarri blames Napoli draw on pitch, fatigue and bad luck

Maurizio Sarri believes a bad pitch, fatigue and a lack of luck led to Napoli’s 0-0 draw with Genoa on Saturday.

A win would have sent the Naples side level with Inter and Fiorentina at the top of the table but they were unable to find the back of the net at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris despite 18 shots at goal.

Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin made eight saves, but the Napoli coach felt a combination of other factors was responsible for his team failing to secure all three points.

“We played a great game, we only lacked luck,” Sarri said.

“The team did what they had to do, I liked the mentality. Unfortunately we did not take our chances in front of goal.

“Sometimes we’ve made six chances and scored five, now we have created many but not put any in.

“You cannot think of winning every game, here we have taken a point on a difficult pitch.

“Among other things, the pitch was bad and did not allow us to play football.

“We played three games in a week and maybe this was seen in our attack, where we were not brilliant at finishing – but it was also a good performance from Perin.

“I repeat: the point is good because of the difficult pitch. Now we look forward.”