JAKARTA - The Napoli players are simultaneously wearing jersey number 10 and bearing Maradona's name before the kickoff for the Europa League match against HNK Rijeka on Thursday local time (Friday WIB).
The move was a form of tribute to Maradona, who was considered a hero and even the Messiah for the people of Naples.
Before the match began, Videotron at the San Paolo Stadium, which has now officially changed its name to the San Paolo-Maradona Stadium, displayed the face of the legendary Argentine footballer and the two teams held a silent silence.
Napoli's face cannot be separated from Maradona's figure. Imported from Barcelona, Maradona became a star in Naples by donating various trophies, namely the 1986-1987 and 1989-1990 Scudetto, 1986-1987 Coppa Italia, 1988-1989 UEFA Cup (now Europa League) and 1990-1989 Supercoppa Italiana.
Prior to Maradona's arrival, Napoli was a mediocre club in the middle of a city that was slum, poor and full of conflict. Maradona then made Naples work on improving itself.
Seven years wearing sky blue uniforms, Napoli was finally able to align itself with the established symbolic clubs of Italian football such as Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan.
Interestingly, when Maradona's Argentina team met Italy in Napoli at the 1990 World Cup, some of the home fans did the unthinkable by cheering for the South American nation.
Napoli itself won 2-0 against HNK Rijeka in the fourth match of the Europa League which took place at the San Paolo-Maradona Stadium, as well as ending the adventure of the Croatian club in the competition.
This defeat made Rijeka slumped at the bottom of the Group F standings without winning a single point. Rijeka's elimination in the Europa League was also due to the draw between Real Sociedad and AZ Alkmaar. Even though the Europa League still has two games left and if Rijeka wiped out both of them, they would still not be able to match Sociedad and AZ's points.
As for Napoli, this victory makes them perched at the top of the standings with nine points or two points adrift of Sociedad and AZ Alkmaar.
Despite dominating the game, Napoli had to wait until the 41st minute to break the deadlock. The opening goal also did not come from the home player's feet but an own goal by Armando Anastasio.
Entering the second half Napoli did not reduce the tempo of the game. The actions of Diego Demme and Tiemoue Bakayoko almost made the scoreboard change if the two opportunities did not go sideways on the side of Rijeka's goal. On the other hand, Rijeka only occasionally counterattacked when a Napoli player made a mistake.
Hirving Lozano, who had just entered in the second half, gave a different color to the Partenopei front lines. 10 minutes after Lozano entered, he immediately made the home crowd cheer again.
Lozano, who escaped the offside trap, received a sweet pass from Insigne. Being in a one-on-one position with the goalkeeper, Lozano had no trouble vibrating Rijeka's net that was guarded by Ivan Nevistic. Until the 2-0 score ended.
In the fifth week of match Sociedad will have guests HNK Rijeka, while Napoli will travel to AZ Alkmaar's headquarters.
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