SSC Napoli have won the Italian Serie A championship for the first time in 33 years and for the third time in the club’s history. The team of coach Luciano Spalletti handed a 1: 1 (1: 0) in Udinese on Thursday. With five games to go, Napoli have a 16-point lead over Lazio Roma and can no longer be caught.
In Udine, the outsider took the lead through former Austrian youth team player Sandi Lovric (13′), but Napoli’s star striker Victor Osimhen (52′) equalized shortly after the break. “I’m overwhelmed at the moment. It’s an incredible feeling,” Osimhen said after the game. “We have waited for this moment for so many years. Presenting the Scudetto to the Neapolitans is something we will never forget.” Napoli President Aurelio de Laurentiis said: “It is the culmination of a dream that has lasted 33 years.”
12,000 Napoli fans were in the stadium, more than 50,000 watched the game in the home Stadio Diego Armando Maradona via live broadcast. After that there was no holding back. Winning the “Scudetto” in 1987 and 1990, three points ahead of Juventus Turin and two points ahead of Milan, was a very close affair. Quite the opposite of the current season: Societa Sportiva Calcio Napoli was only not in first place after the fourth and fifth round and did not experience a weak phase. 25 of 33 league games were won. 69 goals are the measure of all things in the league, just 23 goals against too.
The southern Italians deserved the triumph with splendid and mostly sovereign performances this season, an exciting offensive with Osimhen and dribbling artist Chwitscha Kwarazchelia as well as the carefreeness of an outsider without any big stars. After a few narrowly missed successes in recent years, coach Spalletti managed this time that his team did not collapse over the course of the season.
Megaparty in Napoli
“Naples, this title is for you. There are many people who remembering this moment will give them strength to get through difficult times,” said Coach Spalletti. While the players were celebrating the championship title in Udine with the fans who had traveled with them, the long-awaited mega party in Napoli began. Countless supporters gathered in the large squares during the day and got in the mood for the triumph with battle chants and Bengal fire. Even before the final whistle in Udine, fireworks rockets were shot into the sky in Naples.
For security reasons, a number of streets were closed to traffic in the already chaotic city at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, and a large police presence was intended to ensure a peaceful night of partying. Actually, the party should have started last Sunday – but because Napoli surprisingly only played 1-1 at home against Salernitana, the celebration had to be postponed by four days. For weeks, however, hardly anyone in Italy had any doubts about the third title for Naples after 1987 and 1990. In the Champions League, too, Napoli was only eliminated in the quarter-finals against AC Milan.
