Kim Min-jae’s ‘monster defense’ shone alone despite the team’s first defeat in the league.
Napoli, the leader of Serie A in Italian professional football, suffered its first defeat in the league, but Kim Min-jae (27)’s ‘iron wall defense’ remained intact. 스포츠토토

On the 5th (Korean time), Kim Min-jae played full-time in an away game against Inter Milan in the 16th round of Serie A, tying Romelu Lukaku, the goal scorer of the opposing team, tightly.

Napoli lost 0-1 with Lukaku and Edin Dzeko scoring a header in the 11th minute of the second half .

However, on the side of Lukaku, who was in charge of Kim Min-jae, no such opportunity came out .

Kim Min-jae, who started as a central defender in harmony with Amir Rahmani, often faced Lukaku, who was mainly active in the right front.

With the start of the game, Lukaku received an infiltrating pass and ran to Napoli’s rear, but lost the ball to Kim Min-jae, who followed in an instant, and had to reduce the skills of the league’s top defenders.

In the 4th minute of the first half, Kim Min-jae overcame a physical struggle with Lukaku who caught the ball in front of the goal and blocked the shot.
In the 40th minute counterattack situation in the first half, Lukaku kicked a right-footed shot from the right side of the penalty arc, taking advantage of the gap between Kim Min-jae and the distance.

The ball, however, cut through the air. This was Lukaku’s last shot.

Min-jae Kim’s ‘blockade of Lukaku’ continued until the second half.

As soon as Lukaku caught the ball on the right side of the penalty box in the 3rd minute of the second half, he immediately kicked it away.

Immediately after, he won a contest with Lukaru, who was trying to receive a pass from the rear, and took the right to attack.

In the 20th minute of the second half, Inter Milan called in Lukaku, who was not very active in Kim Min-jae’s defense.

Instead, Argentina’s Lautaro Martinez, who played an active part in the World Cup, was put in.
It was a strategy to harass the tired Napoli defense.

However, Martinez could not handle Kim Min-jae either.

Just before the end of the game, Kim Min-jae blocked the front of Martinez who counterattacked after receiving a forward pass from Nicolo Varela, creating a one-on-one situation.

Kim Min-jae rushed at the moment Martinez was about to speed up after receiving the ball, overcame a struggle and kicked the ball away.

According to WhoScored.com, a soccer statistics site, Kim Min-jae recorded 3 successful tackles and 3 kicks, the most on the team that day. He also made 2 interceptions.

Kim Min-jae, who recorded 101 ball touches, the most in Naples, tried 88 passes with a 90% success rate and was actively involved in the build-up from the rear.

Whoscored.com gave Kim Min-jae a rating of 6.8, the highest in the team.

According to Foot Mob, another statistics site, Kim Min-jae won the right to attack twice in three aerial competitions.

On the ground, not in the air, the duel was won 3 out of 5 times.

This site gave Kim Min-jae a rating of 7.1.