You would think the prefect of a city as superstitious as Naples might have worried a little more about tempting fate. To place a loaf of bread upside down on the dinner table is to invite bad luck on yourself in southern Italy, yet Claudio Palomba had no qualms requesting that the footballing calendar be flipped on its head so the home team could win Serie A at a more convenient time.
Napoli were originally scheduled to host Salernitana on Saturday. Seventeen points clear at the top of the table, with seven games left to play, they knew a win could secure the Scudetto if second-placed Lazio failed to beat Internazionale at San Siro the following day.
That was until Palomba intervened, applying pressure on the league and Italy’s interior minister to have Napoli’s game pushed back to Sunday afternoon. He cited public safety concerns, arguing that the celebration of the team’s first title in 33 years would be much easier to manage if it were centred on their home stadium instead of dispersed throughout the city.
The league acceded, confirming only on Thursday that Napoli’s game had been pushed back to Sunday at 3pm – shortly after Inter-Lazio was due to finish. In an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday, the Salernitana president, Daniele Iervolino, suggested his own team’s objections had been ignored.
“I’m really disappointed. The certainty of the calendar is fundamental to the integrity of an industry like ours,” Iervolino said. “This is a very serious precedent because it’s rewarding those who put on the most pressure … this decision penalises us from several different points of view, such as the reduced time we will have to prepare for our next game, against Fiorentina. Our needs were not considered.”
Perhaps this was not the only sense in which his team had been overlooked. The national sporting media’s attention was all on Inter-Lazio – sixth versus second – two direct rivals in the battle for Champions League places. This was also supposed to be the game which decided whether Napoli got to celebrate now or later. Their own match was presumed a formality.
Lazio did their bit to make things interesting, claiming a first-half lead in Milan. Francesco Acerbi got in a muddle and gave the ball away to his former teammate, Felipe Anderson, on the edge of the area, the Brazilian swapping a one-two with Luis Alberto before drilling into the bottom corner. Acerbi, who joined Inter on loan from Lazio in the summer, almost gave the game away completely when he lost possession again on the cusp of half-time, but this time Ciro Immobile’s shot was saved by Andre Onana.
Still, Inter trailed until the 78th minute. Through force of will they got back level, Robin Gosens so determined to win a loose ball that he cleaned out his own teammate, Hakan Calhanoglu, as he slid in to redirect it into the path of Romelu Lukaku. The Belgian held off Nicolò Casale and played a perfect through-pass to meet the angled run of Lautaro Martínez, who finished between two defenders.
A draw here would have suited Napoli just fine – but not an Inter side who began the weekend seven points behind Lazio and two outside the top four. Five minutes later, Lukaku lifted a cross from the right corner of the area for Gosens to volley home at the back post. It finished 3-1 to the Nerazzurri, the game finding some symmetry as a former Inter player, Matías Vecino, slipped and gifted Lautaro the ball for his second.
The stage was set now for Napoli’s coronation. There were 60,000 fans inside the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and tens of thousands more outside, gathering in anticipation of the party to come. After the date change for this game was confirmed, local authorities had issued ordinances restricting traffic through sections of the city on Sunday in an attempt to keep the celebrations within a more manageable area.
Yet Salernitana were refusing to play along. Paulo Sousa had sent his team out in a low block, with defenders doubling up on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia wherever he went. Memo Ochoa made a pair of important first-half saves, keeping out a Victor Osimhen header and André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s volley from outside the box, but he was not exactly under siege.
Nobody who has paid attention to Salernitana’s recent performances ought to have been surprised. Not only are they a local rival – their home stadium is barely 40 miles up the coast – but they arrived here on an eight-game unbeaten run that included draws with both Milan clubs. Since appointing Sousa as manager in February, they have shown continuous improvement.
Salernitana were never going to roll over. Still, their resistance was broken just after the hour mark, when Mathías Olivera headed home from Giacomo Raspadori’s corner. Blue smoke billowed up from the flares set off in the stands, turning the Maradona into a footballing Vesuvius.
Plenty of teams might have yielded to the moment. Salernitana did not. In the 84th minute, Boulaye Dia nutmegged Victor Osimhen and jagged inside from the right, breezing past Kvaratskhelia before whipping a brilliant, bending finish into the far corner of the net.
A stadium, and a city, were stunned to silence. All that work setting up the perfect party, only for your neighbour to come round and pull out the plug. That the goal should be scored by Dia – a man who was out of football and working as an electrician just a few years ago – going past the two star performers of this spectacular Napoli season felt like an extra little reminder of the importance of staying humble.
Napoli tried to rescue the moment. Ochoa made further saves from Kvaratskhelia and Giovanni Simeone, and seven minutes of injury time were played. But there was no late winner. The game ended 1-1, meaning that Napoli were still one point short of mathematically being confirmed as the champions.
It will not matter in the long run. Osimhen threw out his arms in frustration at full-time, but fans still applauded. The official festivities were put on hold but there were plenty on Sunday night who gathered all the same to celebrate, wave flags and sing. The Scudetto could be Napoli’s as soon as Wednesday, if Lazio fail to win at home to Sassuolo.
Otherwise, they can claim it for themselves simply by avoiding defeat at Udinese on Thursday. Neither scenario might feel as rewarding as sealing the deal in front of your own supporters, but nobody could doubt that Naples will make up for it with the months of celebration to come.
Bologna 1-1 Juventus, Fiorentina 5-0 Sampdoria, Cremonese 1-1 Verona, Napoli 1-1 Salernitana, Sassuolo 2-1 Empoli, Inter 3-1 Lazio, Torino 1-2 Atalanta, Roma 1-1 Milan, Spezia 0-2 Monza, Lecce 1-0 Udinese
Salernitana’s goals are more modest. They will be delighted if they can secure a third consecutive season in the top flight. Sousa – sent off for dissent in injury time on Sunday – had declined to get drawn into a debate about the merits of rescheduling beforehand but allowed himself a “general point”, saying “this year Italian football is at a great level, as we can see from our clubs’ performance in Europe. The people making decisions need to guarantee that same level.”
He was echoing the sentiment of Iervolino, both men feeling their club had been taken for granted. On the pitch, their players reminded everyone of why that is dangerous to do.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Napoli | 32 | 46 | 79 |
| 2 | Lazio | 32 | 26 | 61 |
| 3 | Juventus | 32 | 21 | 60 |
| 4 | Inter Milan | 32 | 19 | 57 |
| 5 | AC Milan | 32 | 14 | 57 |
| 6 | Roma | 32 | 14 | 57 |
| 7 | Atalanta | 32 | 16 | 55 |
| 8 | Bologna | 32 | 1 | 45 |
| 9 | Fiorentina | 32 | 6 | 45 |
| 10 | Monza | 32 | -3 | 44 |
| 11 | Sassuolo | 32 | -7 | 43 |
| 12 | Torino | 32 | -5 | 42 |
| 13 | Udinese | 32 | 2 | 42 |
| 14 | Salernitana | 32 | -13 | 34 |
| 15 | Empoli | 32 | -16 | 32 |
| 16 | Lecce | 32 | -11 | 31 |
| 17 | Spezia | 32 | -25 | 27 |
| 18 | Verona | 32 | -18 | 27 |
| 19 | Cremonese | 32 | -30 | 20 |
| 20 | Sampdoria | 32 | -37 | 17 |
