Gattuso has jumped in defense of Lorenzo Insigne after the Napoli captain missed a crucial penalty that could have leveled matters against Juventus.
Gennaro Gattuso has refused to blame Lorenzo Insigne for Napoli’s Supercoppa final defeat to Juventus on Wednesday night.
It was a heart-breaking evening at the Mapei Stadium for the Partenopei.
Lorenzo Insigne had the opportunity to equalize after Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal. To the dismay of Gattuso, the Napoli captain fired a penalty wide of the target in the 80th minute.
Wojciech Szczesny also made sensational saves, including one in stoppage time. From the resulting sequence, Morata went on the counter and scored with the last kick of the game to give Juve a 2-0 win.
Had Insigne scored, the game could have taken a different turn, but Gattuso insists Napoli lost as a ‘team’.
“I have to thank my players, as they did what we needed to. They were a little timid, especially in the first half, but reacted to the goal,” Gattuso told Sky Sport Italia.
“These things can happen, I congratulate them on their efforts. We could’ve done something more perhaps, but we know these situations are difficult.”
Insigne was in tears after missing the spot-kick that would’ve been his 100th Napoli goal.
“In such an important game, you can have a little bad luck and that includes a missed penalty, but the save on Lozano at the 94th minute was incredible,” Gattuso added.
“We win and lose with everyone in the team, Lorenzo mustn’t think we lost because of him, as that’s just not true.”
“These two teams respected each other, it was a chess match of tactics, neither side had many scoring opportunities. It wasn’t perfect from either of us. They tried to use the pace of their strikers, but we blocked off the spaces most of the time.”
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