Super Eagles red-hot striker Victor Osimhen and his Napoli teammates were all ready to celebrate their first Scudetto in 33 years, but a late Boulaye Dia’s equaliser for Salernitana at the Diego Maradona Stadium, postponed the party after a Mathias Olivera header in the 62nd.
This fixture was postponed by 24 hours to prepare for the title celebrations, needing a win here and for Lazio to drop points against Inter. That first part was in the balance until a late comeback saw Inter win 3-1. The second was not to be taken for granted either, as Salernitana were unbeaten in eight rounds. Mario Rui, Matteo Politano and Domen Crnigoj were on the treatment table.
Osimhen threatened an opener within 66 seconds, his header wide of the near post from Hirving Lozano’s cross, then another aerial effort was palmed away by Guillermo Ochoa.
The goalkeeper also got down to beat away an Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa daisy-cutter and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia’s sudden curler skimmed the crossbar.
Piotr Zielinski turned an audacious over-head kick off target, but the deadlock was finally broken on a Giacomo Raspadori corner when Mathias Olivera found a gap in the crowd for a glancing header, sending the crowd into an eruption of noise and joy.
Eljif Elmas almost got a second moments later, dribbling past the entire Salernitana defence before his angled drive beat Ochoa to shave a coat of paint off the base of the far post.
Kvaratskhelia pulled back from the by-line for Raspadori, whose shot was charged down in the box, then the Georgian hit a screamer that flashed across the face of the goal to skim the far stick.
However, Salernitana had no intention of letting the party go ahead and equalised with a ferocious Boulaye Dia strike across Meret into the far top corner, after controlling the Kastanos cross.
Kvaratskhelia again tested Ochoa and Amir Rrahmani’s header from a stoppage-time corner was straight at him.
