Kevin De Bruyne scored on his Napoli debut on Saturday because the Serie A champions kicked off their title defence with a simple 2-0 win at promoted Sassuolo.
The headline signing of the summer time switch window in Italy, De Bruyne opened his account for Napoli within the 57th minute when his free-kick swept in from the left flank and evaded everybody earlier than nestling within the far nook.
De Bruyne made positive Napoli would get off to a profitable begin to the brand new season in Reggio Emilia after Scott McTominay continued the place he left off from final season with a bullet header within the seventeenth minute.
McTominay was the star of Napoli’s second Scudetto triumph in three years with 12 objectives and once more appeared in wonderful type for Antonio Conte’s crew.
The Scotland midfielder was unfortunate to not double his tally for the night on the stroke of half-time when his rasping first-time effort crashed onto the crossbar.
Napoli have by no means retained a league title, not even when Diego Maradona strutted his stuff in southern Italy again within the Eighties, and their try to take action after the historic success of 2023 ended with a Tenth-place end.
Nonetheless not like Luciano Spalletti, whose exit straight after profitable the league destabilised Napoli, Conte has determined to remain put and that has given followers hopes of one other large season.
The present crew must play the primary few months of Napoli’s bid for a fifth league crown with out Romelu Lukaku.
De Bruyne’s Belgium teammate may very well be out of motion till the tip of the 12 months with a thigh muscle tear and his understudy Lorenzo Lucca struggled to get into the sport on his Napoli debut.
Sassuolo romped to the Serie B title final time period however have been outclassed on their return to the highest flight, and completed the match with 10 males after debutant Ismael Kone was despatched off within the 79th minute for 2 bookable offences.
Later, Luka Modric will begin AC Milan’s first fixture of the marketing campaign in opposition to promoted Cremonese because the veteran star begins a brand new chapter in northern Italy after 13 trophy-laden years at Actual Madrid.
Roma face an outdated foe of their first official fixture beneath new coach Gian Piero Gasperini, with former Lazio striker Ciro Motionless making his Bologna debut.
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