Italy lived, Sunday April 30, a long and beautiful afternoon of football, which was to end with the third title in the history of Naples, the first since the Maradona era, straddling the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. For Napoli to be mathematically champions this Sunday, Lazio Rome, their first pursuer, had to not win, between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., in Milan, against at Inter. Then Naples scores one more goal than Salernitana, at home, from 3 p.m.
By leading a long time (0-1) in Milan, the Romans almost spoiled, before it even started, the big party promised to the Neapolitans. But the Inter players, who are pursuing high goals at the end of the season (they have an appointment with their “brothers” from AC Milan in the semi-finals of the Champions League on May 10 and 16), revolted late in the game to score 3 goals in 13 minutes. Two of them are signed Lautaro Martinez, Argentine striker world champion with Albiceleste in Qatar.
With this defeat of Lazio, the Neapolitans had only to rely on themselves against Salernitana, modest 14th team in Serie A before this match. At the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples, 55,000 beating hearts were ready to beat a little harder for the city’s team to regain the title of Italian champions, a long wait of 33 years.
Victor Osimhen headlining
In 1987 and 1990, Maradona, his genius, his excesses, embodied Napoli and his successes alone. The work is more collective in 2023, with all the same a headliner, the Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen, a talent of 1.85 meters, 24 years old, recognizable by his black facial protection mask and his peroxidized hair.
This Sunday on the lawn, alongside Osimhen, the club chaired by film producer Aurelio De Laurentiis lined up at kick-off an international team like modern football – and its transfers of all kinds – generates: a Georgian, a Mexican, a Pole, a Slovak, a Cameroonian, an Uruguayan, a South Korean, a Kosovar and only two Italians, the captain, the defender Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and the goalkeeper Alex Meret, neither one neither being born in the Naples area.
The supporters had already been pushing for more than an hour when Mathias Olivera delivered the Maradonna Stadium and its surroundings, where thousands of people without tickets were planning to experience the coronation as closely as possible. In the 62nd minute, on a corner, the Uruguayan defender cut the trajectory of the ball to better smash it into the back of the goal. Zidane gifted the World Cup to France with the same gesture in 1998. Immediately, the ball thought to be the title was carefully slipped into a cloth bag and headed to the club’s museum!
Smoke bombs, trumpets, songs, sky and white flags waved in the air: the Neapolitans began the great celebration without delay. Prematurely. Six minutes from the final whistle, Boulaye Dia, the Senegalese striker of Salernitana, very discreet until then, pierced the defense of Napoli before deceiving Meret with a powerful shot from the left foot.
Final score: 1-1. Napoli will have to wait a few more days before celebrating the title. The next day of Serie A, the 33rd, runs between Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 May. Napoli will move to Udinese. The club are so far ahead of their pursuers (18 points over Lazio) that there is little doubt that Napoli will be sacred this year. But this Sunday, the day and time for the start of the celebrations are still not set in stone.
