Napoli blew their golden chance to pip Juventus to the Serie A crown

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Bengaluru, May 13: It all seemed like an anti-climax that night in Florence. Jorginho had tears rolling down his eyes, his head buried in his shirt. This was not what everyone wanted or expected. Napoli had just been humbled in a 3-0 defeat by Fiorentina, relying on a hat-trick by Giovanni Simeone.

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Maurizio Sarri, the Napoli manager, described this as his team’s worst performance of the season. Juventus, on the other hand, came back to beat Inter 3-2 with two goals in the last four minutes. Presently, the gap at the top of Serie A, merely a single point a fortnight ago, stands at six points, with Juve beating Bologna 3-1 and Napoli achieving only a 2-2 draw against Torino. They say a week is a long time in football, and so has it proved for Napoli.

The scenes at Naples’ Capodichino airport were full of celebration and jubilation that night, a city drunk on its football team had come out in huge numbers to welcome their heroes. Napoli had just beaten Juventus 1-0 at their home and this was like biting the lion in his own den, but this bite had left a big mark.

It did not change the position of either of the teams in the league table but had squeezed Juve’s lead at the top only to a single point. Kalidou Koulibaly rose above all in the 90th minute to win the game for Napoli with his header.

Diego Maradona wrote “Mamma Miaahh” on his facebook account, a perfect description of the emotions of all the Neopalites then. There had never been times as glorious as this after the Argentine genius had left his beloved Naples. Sarri said after the game “If it was up to me we would go to the palace and seize power.”

That exuberant charge for power collapsed against a steely Fiorentina. The Partenopi never looked like coming back into the game after Koulibaly was sent off by a VAR decision, turning from hero to villain in an instant. Napoli flickered and fluffed but couldn’t get going and Fiorentina punished their mistakes.

What now remains for SSC Napoli and their fans is to hope for a miracle and pray for Roma; fighting for a top-4 berth, to beat the defending champions; and for Napoli to not only win their last two games but win them big. Given a goal difference of 16 to recover and Juve’s last fixture being against a relegated Verona, a seventh consecutive title is in the Old Lady’s bag.

No silverware this season will have a much bigger impact at Napoli than just losing the biggest chance to win the Scudetto in decades. Sarri said that he loves managing his boyhood club but was also non-committal at the same time, saying no one knew what the future holds, while also mentioning his €8 million release clause. He has been linked with Chelsea and PSG recently. Several crucial players like Jorginho, Insigne, Zelsinki, Koulibaly and others have long been on the radar of big European clubs, who won’t be shy to break the bank for them this summer.

So what lies ahead for Napoli is another build up process with fresh faces as they still search for their first silverware since Aurelio De Laurentiis took over the club. It was a golden opportunity, the closest anyone has come to break the dominance of the Bianconeri in Italy in recent years but Napoli, who seemed overawed by pressure in their late season's dip, spluttered this chance. It seems the party the whole of Naples was having that night at the airport was nothing but premature. The title is gone, Juve and Allegri reign supreme in their palace.