Correspondent Lee Eui-jin = Korean national team’s “monster defender” Kim Min-jae (27) played full-time and led his team, Italy’s professional football Serie A Napoli, to four consecutive victories with his impregnable defense.

Napoli, which widened the gap with second place, moved one step closer to winning the league.

Napoli defeated AS Roma 2-1 in the 2022-2023 Italian Serie A round 18 home game held at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples, Italy on the 30th (Korean time).

Napoli, whose undefeated streak of 15 league games after the opening ended in the match against Inter Milan in the 16th round, continued its upward trend with four consecutive wins.

Leading Napoli (53 points), with 17 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, has a greater chance of winning as it widens the difference between second place Inter Milan (13 wins, 1 draw, 6 losses, 40 points) to 13 points.

Even if Napoli’s 4 consecutive losses and Inter Milan’s 4 consecutive wins happen at the same time, this point difference cannot be overturned.

On the other hand, Roma (11 wins, 4 draws, 5 losses, 37 points) competing with Lazio, Atalanta and AC Milan (38 points above), which were placed in 3rd, 4th and 5th places, maintained 6th place without adding any points.

Kim Min-jae, who played as a central defender in sync with Amir Rahmani, showed a watertight defense this day as well.

According to Whoscored.com, a soccer statistics site, Kim Min-jae recorded the most kicks of 9 times across both teams.

It is close to twice that of Rachmanina and opposing central defender Chris Smalling (more than 5 times).

Kim Min-jae also had the highest number of shots in the shooting jersey category twice, and also made two successful tackles.

He also played a perfect role in the back, recording a pass success rate of 93.2%, the highest in the team.

The Roman three-top team, which mainly faced off against the Kim Min-jae-Rahmani combination and Tammy Abraham-Paulo Dybala-Lorenzo Pellegrini, struggled to the point of only two combined shots.

Divilla and Pellegrini each had a chance to shoot, but there were no effective shots made by them.

However, in the 12th minute of the first half, Kim Min-jae accidentally faced an own goal crisis.

When Roma’s long pass flew into Napoli’s penalty box, Kim Min-jae overcame the competition and hit the ball in the head. 안전놀이터

As the goalkeeper advanced and the goal post was empty, the ball headed toward Napoli’s goal post, and the defenders hurriedly ran to block the own goal.

Fortunately, the ball bounced on the ground a few times and did not lead to a goal as it slightly missed the side of the goal.

Five minutes later, Victor Osimen of Napoli shook the net first with a cool right-footed shot, forcing Kim Min-jae to forget his mistake.

Osimen scored the opening goal with a non-stop shot after receiving Hvica Kvarachhelia’s cross from the left flank with his chest and then his knee.

Roma scored a comeback goal in the 30th minute of the second half when a cross from the right flank hit Stefan El Sharawi’s right foot as he ran into Napoli’s goal.

The balance of the tight game shifted to Napoli in the 41st minute of the second half when Giovanni Simeone scored the winning goal.

Simeone, who received a pass in the penalty arc, immediately turned around to create space to shoot, and hit the top corner of the goal with a strong kick with his left foot, driving a wedge.