Cuesta praise for ‘Parma incredible sacrifice and spirit’ in 1-1 with Napoli

Parma coach Carlos Cuesta hailed his team’s ‘incredible sacrifice and team spirit’ to battle their way to a 1-1 draw with Napoli. ‘We’ll take the point.’

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It was the perfect start for Parma at the Stadio Tardini, as surprise pick Nesta Elphege flicked on the long Zion Suzuki ball for Gabriel Strefezza to score after 33 seconds.

Despite being pinned back for long periods, Parma were rarely forced into difficult saves, held to a 1-1 draw by the Scott McTominay low drive.

Cuesta and Parma a real problem for Napoli

“I want to thank my players for all the hard work they do on the field, but also the incredible help from the fans, who gave us the strength to run that extra bit to get to the ball first,” Cuesta told DAZN Italia.

“We wanted to make the fans happy with a victory, we didn’t manage it, but we’ll take the point. We are here to defend the Parma shirt with honour and know we have not achieved our objective yet, but we’re all in this together.”

This is the third consecutive draw between Parma and Napoli, denying Antonio Conte a sixth Serie A victory on the bounce and potentially handing the Scudetto to Cuesta’s predecessor Cristian Chivu at Inter.

It also keeps the Ducali further away from the relegation zone, as they are currently nine points clear of the bottom three.

“I said from the first day I arrived that I didn’t have expectations, I just wanted to raise the bar. We know there are six games to go, but we’ve got to keep pushing. I saw incredible sacrifice, defending, team spirit, everyone helps each other out to bring home the result as a team,” continued the former Arsenal assistant manager.

“We know that at times we must adapt to the context of the match, usually we prefer to keep more of the ball and stay in the opposition half, but we do our best.”

Elphege was an unexpected choice for his first Serie A start, replacing the suspended Mateo Pellegrino, and made an immediate impact with the assist.

“He’s a good lad, everyone likes him, it was a very positive performance and we cannot ask him to simply replace Pellegrino, as they have different characteristics, but we hope he can have more consistency in future,” explained Cuesta.

There were penalty appeals late on when Leonardo Spinazzola kicked the ball onto the arm of teammate Alessandro Buongiorno, but it was evaluated as being in a natural position.

“I haven’t seen the footage, but they told us it was not a penalty,” noted Cuesta.