Victor Osimhen threw his arms to the sky as the final whistle went, then ran toward the man who had blown it. He waved an angry finger at the referee Federico La Penna, demanding to know why the match had been stopped while an attack was ongoing. Napoli were engaged in one final, futile, attempt to break a goalless stalemate against Verona. The crowd at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona shared loudly in his indignation.
The dropped points hardly mattered to Napoli, who still finished the weekend 14 clear of Lazio at the top of Serie A with eight games remaining. Yet this was a window into the Partenopei’s state of being as they prepare for a season-defining Champions League quarter-final second leg at home to Milan on Tuesday night.
