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MOTD- Swansea City 0-0 Napoli

By on February 20, 2014

It is quite unusual for a player-manager to do well in modern football, in no small part due to the difficulty of picking whether the manager himself with be in the starting lineup, but Swansea City’s interim manager Garry Monk produced such a good performance out of his side against a full-strength Napoli in the Europa League that it has been reported that the player-manager is close to being offered a full time position.  The center-back, just thirty-four, is yet to place himself in Swansea’s starting lineup, a strategy which seems to be working after a fully dominant performance at home in his first ever European match in charge of any side.  Swansea recorded a sturdy ten shorts on target at the Liberty Stadium, but the biggest surprise was that the Swans failed to find the back of the net.

The home side nearly took the lead just six minutes in when Pablo Hernandez cut the ball back from the left wing to Nathan Dyer, who curled a whipping first time effort towards the far corner of the goal from fifteen yards out.  Dyer already seemed to be celebrating, but Rafael Cabral somehow managed to get across goal to claw the ball just wide.  Cabral, filling in for the injured Pepe Reina, might have been Napoli’s back-up goalkeeper, but judging by his performance you wouldn’t know it.  The 23-year-old once again came out big to deny Swansea another golden opportunity, charging out and making himself look massive to block Wilfred Bony’s attempted chip after the forward was slipped in on goal with an inch-perfect through ball from Hernandez.

However, just like Cabral Swansea were having a terrific first half.  The Welsh club once again came close in the thirty-ninth minute, with Williams heading Hernandez chipped cross from the left inches over the top crossbar even though he should have put the free header in the back of the net.  Wayne Routledge then cut in from the right and fired a blazing effort just over the crossbar, with Napoli still allowing Swansea far to much freedom on the wings.

Angel Rangel was the next to exasperatingly close to scoring for Monk’s side, with Cabrel incredibly managing to tip the defender’s far post header millimeters over the bar, yet somehow Swansea couldn’t give themselves a lead before halftime.  To the pleasure of Napoli manager Rafa Benitez, the second half would turn out to be just as frustrating for the home side.  Cabral had to come of via injury over the break, but Reina came in just as strong as Cabral come out.  The former Liverpool goalkeeper palmed Williams’ six-yard bullet header from Jonathan De Guzman’s free-kick over the bar four minutes after the clock reached the hour mark, before he produced another fantastic save, sprawling across goal to tip Routledge’s curler from the left side of the box wide.  That would earn his side an improbable clean sheet, to end a scoreless match in which the scoreline hardly told the whole tale of a dominant Swansea performance that Monk will be disappointed, and surprised, didn’t give him any advantage going into the return leg at Naples.
Man of the Match: Rafael Cabrel (but it is impossible not to recognize the first half that Pablo Hernandez had)

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.