‘You must never give up’: underdogs Napoli reach glorious summit again

T his was not the stadium where Napoli had hoped to seal their Serie A title but after a 33-year wait you can make any place feel like the promised land. There are more than 500 miles of road between the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and Udinese’s Dacia Arena, and thousands of supporters travelled them to be present when their team crossed the finish line.

They were made to suffer a little while longer, watching Napoli fall behind to a brilliantly taken goal by Sandi Lovric. But when Victor Osimhen swept an equaliser home through a crowded penalty area at the start of the second half the celebrations began in earnest. One point was all Napoli needed.

The striker ran to the nearest pocket of away fans and hammered his palms on the barrier, so hard that he appeared to break the protective face mask he had torn off to celebrate. A giant flag of Maradona’s face looked down from behind the goal. Teammates raced over from the bench in yellow bibs with a phrase printed on them: “I will be with you, and you must never give up.”

Those words, taken from a terrace favourite song of Napoli’s supporters, captured the moment. The Partenopei’s final few steps toward this Scudetto have been clumsy, with only four wins in nine Serie A games since the start of March. They were trounced 4-0 by Milan in that stretch and eliminated by the same team from the Champions League.

The Serie A schedule was flipped on its head to allow them to become champions at home to Salernitana on Sunday, but they fluffed their lines against relegation-threatened opponents. Still, it was only a temporary delay. Some fans followed them here, others stayed behind to watch the game on big screens at their home ground. At both ends of the country, they celebrated