Newsletter

Napoli stuns Verona, Osimhen targeted

Napoli outclassed Verona at home (5-2) to make a debut with a bang. A beautiful evening spoiled by racist cries towards his striker.

Naples, forced to reinvent itself without Koulibaly, Insigne or Mertens, put on a show on the field of Hellas Verona (5-2) on Monday for its Serie A debut, in a meeting marked by a few racist insults aimed at Victor Osimhen.

The Nigerian striker from Napoli was, like last season in the same stadium, the target of racist cries descended from the turn of the Verona Ultras during the first period, according to an AFP photographer present at the stadium.

Last season, for racist choirs already targeting Osimhen and Kalidou Koulibaly, Verona was condemned to play a meeting with a closed turn.

Not enough to destabilize Osimhen or Napoli, who discovered with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia an already effective replacement on the orphan left wing of Lorenzo Insigne: the young Georgian (21) also scored and offered a goal.

As in their initial slap (1-4) against Serie B side Bari in the Italian Cup a week ago, Hellas nevertheless scored first through 29th-placed Kevin Lasagna and managed to equalize on recovery thanks to Thomas Henry, 48th.

But the former team of Igor Tudor, now coached by Gabriele Cioffi, must also leave without a few key players, including striker Giovanni Simeone expected soon in Naples.

Naples reversed the situation on a header from Kvaratskhelia (37th) then a recovery from Osimhen (45 + 3rd). And past the fear of the Verona equalizer on the return from the locker room, Napoli escaped thanks to Piotr Zielinski (55th), Stanislav Lobotka (65th) and Matteo Politano (79th).

«It’s important to start well, because we lost key players, real leaders. It’s up to us to take matters into our own hands“said Osimhen in his post-match interview on DAZN, where he was not asked about the shouting that targeted him. “A perfect start“, he wrote then on Instagram, also without mentioning the incident.

The meeting was preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of ex-goalkeeper Claudio Garella, Italian champion with both teams in the 1980s.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending