It’s not over until it’s over. Or should that be: “it’s not over until the overhead kick”? The Scudetto was within touching distance for Juventus on Wednesday night as they led 1-0 away to Crotone, while Napoli trailed 2-1 at home to Udinese. With more than an hour played, they were on course to extend their lead at the top to nine points.
And then Simy went airborne. The cross had come into Juventus’s box from the left, to be headed down by Andrea Barberis. Marcello Trotta tried to shoot on the turn but made a total hash of it. The ball span away towards Crotone’s colossal No 99. With two defenders in close attendance, he launched himself into the air and scored a spectacular bicycle kick.
The parallels to Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal against Juventus in the Champions League quarter-finals were not lost on anybody. Crotone’s fans launched into impromptu verses likening their player to the Real Madrid forward. Thursday’s Gazzetta dello Sport paid tribute to “Simeon Tochukwu Nwankwo, known as Simy, or perhaps from today as Simaldo”.
At 6ft 6in, the Nigerian has always been hard to miss – he is the tallest outfield player in Serie A – yet his contributions have rarely been as prominent as this. Wednesday’s goal was his sixth in two league seasons for Crotone.
Timing is everything. This strike earned his team an unlikely 1-1 draw against the league leaders. Simy’s previous goal gave them a 1-0 win over Bologna last month. Crotone are still in the relegation zone, one point behind 17th-placed SPAL, but his goals have at least kept survival hopes alive.
That is the only thing that matters to him and his team-mates. “I’m not interested in having done Napoli a favour,” Simy said when one reporter asked at full-time for his thoughts on the title race. “We are thinking 100% about our own objective, which is safety.”
And yet, Juventus’s rivals were cheering him all the same. Napoli had twice fallen behind against Udinese but found a second equaliser at almost the exact same moment as Simy delivered Crotone’s. The mood inside the Stadio San Paolo was electric as they roared back to win 4-2, with Arkadiusz Milik putting them in front before Lorenzo Tonelli sealed the deal.
Instead of falling nine points behind Juventus, they had cut the gap to just four – with a head-to-head coming up on Sunday in Turin. Napoli remain the underdogs, and despite this result Maurizio Sarri’s team is still playing well below its best. It is also true that the Bianconeri have lost only seven times in as many seasons at their Allianz Stadium.
But Napoli’s resilience is extraordinary. They have now taken 28 points from losing positions this season – the most in Serie A. Even a draw on Sunday could keep things interesting. Juventus still face away trips to Inter and Roma, as well as a Coppa Italia final to further congest their schedule.
It is also true that we probably ought to stop second-guessing where the champions could slip up. The only points they have dropped so far in 2018 have been against Crotone and SPAL. They were made to sweat by last-placed Benevento this month, too.
Anything is possible, or so it would seem on a night that also granted us the delirious spectacle of Lazio’s 4-3 win away to Fiorentina. This was a game that served up not only seven goals but three red cards, a penalty, six VAR reviews (one of which cancelled out another spot-kick) and a hat-trick for a player who finished on the losing side.
This was a cruel night for Jordan Veretout, who opened the scoring with a brilliant free-kick, made it 2-0 from the penalty spot and then got his team back in front with a super slalom and finish after Lazio had found a way back level. His was one of the best individual performances by a player all season, yet he still finished up on the losing side.
For that, we must credit Simone Inzaghi. The Lazio manager was dismissed for excessive protests during the first half, but by then he had already made one bold substitution: replacing centre-back Stefan De Vrij with forward Felipe Anderson after 25 minutes. His original gameplan had been thrown into disarray before kick-off, when Marco Parolo was injured during warm-ups. The midfielder’s replacement, Alessandro Murgia, was sent off after less than a quarter of an hour.
The addition of Anderson might not have offered Lazio balance, but it did give them another outlet in what started to look less like a football match than a game of basketball. The Brazilian would score his team’s third goal, though it was Luis Alberto who took the headlines by netting their first and their fourth.
This was a hugely important win for Lazio, allowing them to stay fourth after a round of games when both Roma and Inter won. It was also, despite the chaos, a highly impressive one. Fiorentina had only conceded once in their previous seven games, winning six of those and drawing the remainder.
The Viola slip out of the Europa League spots for now, but only three points separate them, in ninth, from Milan in sixth. With five games to go, nothing in Serie A is settled – not the Scudetto, the continental qualifiers nor the relegation fight. There is time yet for everything to change. And maybe even one or two more overhead kicks.
Talking points
Quick guide Serie A results
Benevento 0-3 Atalanta, Sampdoria 1-0 Bologna, SPAL 0-0 Chievo, Roma 2-1 Genoa, Crotone 1-1 Juventus, Fiorentina 3-4 Lazio, Torino 1-1 Milan, Hellas Verona 0-1 Sassuolo, Napoli 4-2 Udinese
Top scorers Immobile (Lazio) 27, Icardi (Inter) 25, Dybala (Juventus) 21, Quagliarella (Sampdoria) 18, Mertens (Napoli) 17.