Coach Rafael Benitez praised the attitude and performance of his players after Napoli beat Fiorentina 3-1 to win their fifth Italian Cup on Saturday night in a match that kicked off 45 minutes late after three fans were shot, one critically, in an incident near Rome’s Olympic Stadium.
A first-half brace from Italy international Lorenzo Insigne and a late strike from Dries Mertens helped the southern side, who finished with 10 men, to their second Cup victory in three years.
Insigne’s goals in the 11th and 17th minutes put Fiorentina on the backfoot but Juan Vargas brought his side back into the game just before the half hour with a fantastic volley.
Mertens then added Napoli’s third in injury time.
Fiorentina took the game to their rivals in the second half, with Giuseppe Rossi making a first appearance since January 5 as a 69th-minute substitute, but Napoli held on despite Gokhan Inler’s 79th-minute sending-off.
“The most important thing is the performance we saw on the pitch. We showed we wanted to win and went out and delivered,” Benitez told reporters after the match.
“It seemed at the start that everything was going to be easy for us. But Fiorentina are a strong side, they hit back but in the end it was a great result for us.
“The squad is strong, they want to win and I think this bodes well for us in the future,” added the Spaniard.
“It was one of those games that could have ended in any number of ways,” said Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella who felt the match was overshadowed by the trouble ahead of the game.
“My biggest regret is not being able to enjoy the final as I should have been able to due to what happened before the match. I think that was the case for everyone.”
Montella warned that the problems caused by Italian fans could drive players out of the country.
“Unfortunately Italian football is like this, and I think we’ll lose a lot of players because of it. They’ll choose to play elsewhere,” Montella added.
“It’s true even for the Italians. It’s a shame because there was everything in place here tonight to offer people watching something better.”
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis, however, praised the ultras groups for their co-operation and understanding in allowing the match to go ahead.
“I was focused only on verifying with the authorities how we could ensure the game would go ahead, as otherwise it would have been a defeat for all of Italian football,” he said after the match.
“We resolved the problem also with the help of the two ultras groups, who were very understanding and co-operative.”
De Laurentiis then praised the fans’ display of “civility” in the face of bad organisation on the part of the authorities.
“Why is it that the Ministry of the Interior still hasn’t worked out how to organise a football match, which should be child’s play, in a proper manner?” he said in the media conference following the match.