LONDON: Diego Maradona appears to have called a truce with Italian soccer champions Napoli despite the club’s bid to have him dropped from the first team squad.
The former Argentine captain trained for three consecutive days recently and went on to score two more a few days later 4-2 defeat of Parma.
Then he declared: “I would say that things have returned to normal here…to the times when no one beat us at the San Paolo Stadium”
Mid-table Napoli asked the Italian Soccer Federation recently for permission to drop Maradona from their squad. He has missed a number of training sessions and matches this season.
Sampdoria strikers Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Mancini both recently dropped from the Italian national squad also turned on the style in their side’s comprehensive 3-0 win over Bologna.
Italy manager Azeglio Vicini has said the absence of the Sampdoria pair for the days friendly at home to Belgium is a temporary measure to allow him to experiment with new talent.
Vialli himself prefers to concentrate on the fact that Sampdoria are now joint leaders with International of Milan.
“We’ve already had our moment of crisis dropping three points behind and now we’re back on top” Vialli said.
“Let’s hope the others have their difficulties now… because one thing 1s certain we want that title badly.”
Their title chances may be clearer after next home game against Juventus a match in which the discarded Sampdoria pair meets the likely new Italian strike force of Salvatore Schillaci and Pier Luigi Casiraghi.
Second-placed Juventus had predictably the easiest task of the top clubs defeating Cesena 3-0 at home in a game which prompted their patron Fiat president Gianni Agnelli to remark: “I will wait to evaluate this Juventus side more fully and then we’ll make it stronger next year
“As for the championship this year well it will be difficult very very difficult.
In France league champions Marseille recovered their flair with a 1-0 victory at Paris St Germain their first away win for nearly three months and first at the Paris Club for 15 years.
“We’re getting better and better every match” said Belgian coach Raymond Goethals reassured ahead of next month’s European Cup quarter-final clash against champions A C Milan.
“We were looking for something and I feel we have found it; we have played a simple and basic game which led us to our best away match this season” midfielder Bernard Pardo added.
Marseille’s recovery owed a lot to that of England’s Chris Waddle who even conquered the hostile Paris crowd
In the first half Waddle took advantage of a break in play to shake hands with Paris St Germaine’s coach Henri Michel before juggling with the ball to the cheers of the spectators.
Halfway through the second half he emulated Cameroon’s Roger Milla with an impromptu Rumba before kicking a comer which led defender Basile Boli to score the winner.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 15, 1991
