Victor Osimhen had the perfect response for Verona fans on Monday after he was targetted with racist abuses in the convincing 5-2 win in Napoli’s opening match of the Serie A season.
Osimhen was among the scorers in a thumping win for Napoli, who have had a tricky summer after losing stalwarts Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens.
And in first-half stoppage time, Osimhen put Napoli ahead with a carbon copy of Lasagna’s opener from a corner, stretching to jab home Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s knockdown.
An AFP reporter at the game heard a section of the home support launch monkey chants at Osimhen, the latest episode of racist chanting at Verona who have a long history of far-right sympathies among their hardcore support.
After netting his first goal of the season, Nigeria striker Osimhen took off his protective face mask and mimicked crying into a pitch-side camera, suggesting he had heard abuse before his goal.
Napoli’s advantage only lasted two minutes after the half-time break as another debutant in Henry headed in his first Verona goal since arriving from local rivals Venezia.
The Frenchman then accidentally gave Lasagna a bloody nose in the celebrations and a match which had almost everything then swung again in Napoli’s favour in the 55th minute.
Classy Kvaratskhelia slid through Zielinski with a neat first-time pass and the Pole rolled home a calm finish which ended Verona’s resistance.
Ten minutes later the result was put beyond doubt thanks to a well-worked goal from Lobotka, who drove towards the hosts’ goal unchallenged before simply passing the ball past Montipo.
And substitute Politano put the cherry on the cake with 11 minutes remaining after another flowing passing move ended with the Italian collecting Osimhen’s lay-off and firing home low with his left home.
Juventus complete the first round of fixtures later on Monday when they host Sassuolo in Turin.
