On a day like today, February 25, 2021, Granada wrote one of the most beautiful and brilliant pages in its entire history for qualifying for the round of 16 of the Europa League after eliminate Napolione of the most important teams in Italy and that, a priori, started as the favourite.
The Granada players had a notable advantage over Los Cármenes, 2-0 with goals from Yangel Herrera and Kenedy. Napoli has a hot and passionate fan that that day could not access the San Paolo stadium, renamed Diego Armando Maradona after the death of the Argentine star. Although it was played behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, the encouragement of the ‘tifossi’ outside was palpable.
Diego Martínez put the following line-up on the field: Rui Silva, Germán (Yangel Herrera, min. 54), Domingos Duarte, Carlos Neva (Nehuén Pérez, min. 45), Foulquier, Kenedy, Brice, Montoro (Jesús Vallejo, min. 82), Gonalons (Víctor Díaz, min. 46), Puertas and Jorge Molina (Soldier, min. 83). For his part, Genaro Gatusso drew the following line-up: Alex Meret; Maksimovic (Ghoulam, min. 45), Koulibaly, Rrahmani, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Fabián, Bakayoko, Eljif Elmas (Mertens, min. 59), Politano, Zielinski and Insigne. Several of these players faced Barcelona yesterday.
Napoli came out plugged in and at 2′ Zielinski scored the 1-0. Granada knew how to weather the storm and did not break down despite the absence of Machis since during the course of the match Gonalons, Carlos Neva and Germán were injured. At 24′ Montoro. With an accurate header after a huge cross from Foulquier, he scored 1-1. Blow for the Neapolitans who shoot furiously, but who meet a masterful Rui Silva.
Not even Fabian’s goal at 57′ put a Granad off centerto the fact that he played with a skill and mastery that ended up driving Gatusso crazy, who pulled from the valley of tears and the repertoire of excuses to justify his disaster: “In the first half we did not get to play even 17 minutes, in each play Granada I lost two or three. It’s stupid. If an Italian team behaved like them, the next day it was in all the newspapers in Europe. Too little was played, it was evident. More respect is needed.” And it was said by Gatusso that, in his player stage, he gave sticks everywhere.
Granada would eliminate Molde in the next round, a difficult team from Norway, to lose in the quarter-finals against Manchester United. An unforgettable but exhausting season. Between League, Cup and Europa League the team played 60 games. Now Granada is struggling in its race to remain in the First Division and with the hope that, sooner rather than later, it will once again enjoy the unique privilege of playing in Europe.