Eighty-two minutes of nothing
Marassi had been waiting for a goal all night, and by the 80th minute most people inside it had stopped expecting one.
Genoa sat deep and stayed organised. Napoli moved the ball, probed, recycled, found nothing. Massimiliano Allegri’s opening day was drifting toward a goalless afternoon nobody would remember.
Then Vergara slipped a pass through and Kevin De Bruyne put it away in the 82nd. Napoli 1, Genoa 0, and the whole shape of the evening changed in a second.
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Goal, then assist, then it was over
Five minutes later the two swapped roles. De Bruyne became the supplier, Vergara took the finish, and Napoli had a second on 87 minutes.
Two players, 15 minutes, three points. Goal and assist for the Belgian, assist and goal for the Italian. Everything Napoli created that mattered came through that pairing.
They open the season level at the top with Inter and Cagliari, which is roughly where a club with these ambitions expects to be after one match.
Badiashile arrives the same day
Marassi has a long history of ruining title chases. Genoa built their whole night on defensive discipline and came within eight minutes of a point. Allegri will take the win and the way it arrived.
Napoli also added to the back line during the day, taking Benoit Badiashile on loan from Chelsea. Ten days remain in the window and the squad is not finished yet.
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