Napoli, while playing in the shirts resembling the one worn by
Argentina, in honor of its late captain Diego Armando Maradona,
crushed Roma at 4-0 in the Italian soccer league, Sunday.
Lorenzo Insigne gave the home side the lead with a worthy free
kick for the late Argentine in the 30th minute and celebrated by
running to his team’s bench to kiss Maradona’s shirt.
Fabian Ruiz, Dries Mertens and Matteo Politano added a hat-trick
in the second half to knock Roma down for the first time on the
pitch in all competitions this season.
The only defeat for Roma this season was when it was considered a
loss against Verona for having him a player who is not entitled
to play.
As was the case in all Serie A matches this week, the match was
preceded by a minute of silence in mourning for Maradona, who
spent 7 wonderful seasons with Napoli and the match was stopped
in the tenth minute in order to pay homage to the Argentine legend,
who died of a heart attack at the age of 60, last Wednesday.
Napoli advanced to fifth place with 17 points, ahead of Roma on
goal difference.
After public criticism from coach Gennaro Gattuso after the 3-1
defeat to Milan last week, Napoli entered the game strongly and
took the lead when Insigne hit the ball over the wall from a free
kick to land goalkeeper Antonio Mirante.
Insini also contributed to the second goal in the 64th minute,
after receiving a pass from Fabien Ruiz, as he ran forward and
passed again to his Spaniard, who scored with a low shot from
the edge of the penalty area, which passed between the feet of a defender.
Mertens continued the ball into the net after Mirante failed to
clear Elmas’ shot, and Politano added the final touch with a one-
on-one kick, as he worked his way through the Roma defense
and tricked Mirante into the empty net.
