TURIN: Second-placed Napoli threw the Serie A title race wide open in dramatic style on Sunday when Kalidou Koulibaly scored with a towering header in the last minute to give them a famous 1-0 win at leaders Juventus.

Napoli cut the gap between themselves and the Turin side to one point with four matches to play, setting up a dramatic finale to the Serie A season especially as Juve, chasing a seventh successive title, have to visit Inter Milan and AS Roma.

Napoli dominated the match but seemed to have run out of ideas and energy until the final minute when Jose Callejon’s outswinging corner was met by Senegal international Koulibaly with a monstrous header which left Gianlugi Buffon helpless.

Juve, themselves famed for pulling off wins from similar situations, were left shattered after seeing their 20-match unbeaten league run ended while Napoli’s players celebrated a famous win.

“We have always believed in the title and now we believe in it more than ever,” Koulibaly said. “We played really well this evening. It was one of the most important goals of my career. Juventus are a really strong team but we showed we are up to the challenge. We believe in our football.”

Juve have 85 points from 34 games with Napoli, bidding for a third Scudetto after 1987 and 1990, on 84. It was Juve’s first league defeat at home since a 2-1 loss to Lazio in October. Their last Serie A defeat in Turin before that was in August 2015.

“Winning here was practically mission impossible, we can be happy because we have played against a great team which hasn’t lost at home for so long,” Koulibaly said.

“The city fired us up over the last few days and when we see all those fans accompanying us to the airport, it makes us very happy. We want to thank them and the best way of doing that was to win the game.”

Around 2,000 fans had escorted the team bus to the airport in Naples on Saturday.

“Tonight is a feeling that only those who have been with us since yesterday can fully understand,” Sarri said. “It’s an enormous satisfaction. We are the only team which represents an entire population, because we are the only one which comes from a big city that only has one team.

“We gave our fans a huge joy today that goes above and beyond the standings. It was not the perfect match but it was a great match: we did not concede anything to Juventus and the victory was a logical consequence of this attitude. Juventus are still ahead, we just have to think about the next game.”

Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri described it as “a poor match by both sides with only a few shots on goal”.

“It was a terrible game from both teams with zero shots on goal,” said Allegri. “We had some difficulties, but we could have closed it with a draw, unfortunately on the corner we did not mark and they got the goal.

“Napoli did what they had to, they held the ball, and they deserve credit for their victory. It was a head-to-head that was decided by a single incident. We weren’t as sharp as usual.

“We’re still top of the table, we still have the advantage. There are four games to go, two at home and two away, so we’ll see what happens. It’s true that Napoli are favourites because of the fixture list but matches have to be won. I have seen a lot in football ... anything can happen.”

Juve had to reshuffle their defence after Giorgio Chiellini limped off injured in the 11th minute although they nearly went ahead with a Miralem Pjanic free kick which was deflected on to the post.

The Allianz Stadium was briefly silenced shortly before halftime when Lorenzo Insigne had the ball in the back of the net but it was ruled out for offside.

The game appeared to be petering out into a draw that would have suited Juve until Insigne’s shot was turned around the post by Buffon for the decisive corner.

After all their sophisticated passing, it was an old-fashioned central defender’s header which finally broke Juve’s resistance.

Published in Dawn, April 24th, 2018