Dries Mertens terminated Napoli to Saturday’s Italian Cup final after netting the goal that gave his side a 2-1 aggregate semi-final win over Inter Milan and made him the all-time top scorer for the club.
Napoli will face Juventus in Wednesday’s final in Rome thanks to Belgium’s forward Mertens, who opened home his 122nd goal for Napoli four minutes before half-time to make the night score 1-1 and hand them overall victory after a 1-0 first-leg succeed at the San Siro in February.
In the subsequent moment, Christian Eriksen raised the tie for Inter straight from a corner and the offside kept on dominating the principal half, however, Mertens completed a lightning counter-attack to get the hosts through at San Paolo Stadium.
Mertens, 33, overtakes Marek Hamsik and drives seven away from Diego Maradona, who scored 115 goals in all rivalries and won two Series A titles and the UEFA Cup in Southern Italy during his seven tempestuous years.
Although there were no fans at the San Paolo stands, open broadcaster RAI detailed that a small number of Napoli fans who had gathered outside the San Paolo set off firecrackers in celebration of Merten ‘s goal all through the half time frame.
In 2013, Mertens transferred from PSV Eindhoven to Napoli and became so settled in Naples that he was nicknamed ‘Ciro’ by fans, a tremendously popular Naples name.
Following a 0-0 draw in Turin on Friday, Italy’s first serious football match since the nation became the global coronavirus focal point, Napoli will take on Juve at Stadio Olimpico in the Italian capital after Maurizio Sarri ‘s side crushed past AC Milan on away goals.
In tribute to the in excess of 34,000 individuals who kicked the bucket in Italy because of COVID-19, Napoli and Inter players gathered around the inside hover for brief’s quietness as with Friday’s match.
A large TV audience for two of Italy’s best-bolstered clubs would potentially be out there.
Some 8.3 million individuals checked out RAI to watch the goalless draw on Friday at Juve’s Allianz Stadium, the largest TV audience for a football match this season, according to Italian media.
