By full time, it was tempting to believe that Napoli’s troubles had all been an illusion. After 24 hours of accusations and legal threats resulting from videos that the club’s TikTok account posted of striker Victor Osimhen, the Partenopei had come back to their home stadium and thrashed Udinese 4-1. The Nigerian played the first hour of the game, scored the second goal and continued to cheer his teammates after being substituted in the second half.
The manager, Rudi Garcia, once insisted during a previous stint at Roma that his team had “put the church back in the centre of the village” with a derby win over Lazio. Asked whether he had repeated that trick on Wednesday night, he reached for a different analogy, saying instead that Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had “set our watch back to the correct time”.
