9 Games Napoli Fans Should Rewatch While Football Takes a Break
The city of Naples' relationship with football can be described with one word - passion. When the club was playing in Serie C, the third tier of Italian football, the San Paolo welcomed a crowd of 51,000; still a record to this day.
After the club had sealed its first title in 61 years in 1987, fans went to the Fontanelle graveyards and graffitied 'Guys! You don’t know what you are missing'.
'See Naples and Die' is a phrase often remarked about the city and its football - referencing how you can die a content person once you've seen the city. Football is much more than a game in southern Italy.
If your current club is lacking in its away support or can't pump themselves up for every home game, we humbly suggest Napoli as your second club.
Here are nine games to rewatch or simply watch to make you fall in love with Gli Azzurri.
Note: Diego Armando Maradona will feature heavily in this article.
Vfb Stuttgart 3-3 Napoli (1989)
Five years into the Maradona experience, Napoli would taste their first ever European glory. An unlikely Stuttgart had reached the UEFA Cup final to face a much-fancied Partenopei side, with Maradona working in beautiful tandem with Brazilian star Careca.
Taking a 2-1 lead into the second leg, the two sides played out a rip-roaring 3-3 draw in Stuttgart. Two late goals from Die Schwaben made the scoreline more competitive, but Napoli ran out comfortable winners, bringing their only European trophy back to southern Italy.
Dragging an unsuccessful provincial club to the top, Maradona hadn't just conquered Italy - he'd conquered Europe (or at least its second tier).
Napoli 2-1 Juventus (1987)
In Diego's third season at Napoli, Maradona cracked the code and brought home a league and cup double. It's also important to remember that Napoli were not part of the Italian football elite, their ascent most similar to Manchester City's sudden rise or maybe as improbable as Leicester City's title win.
The 80s was a fiercely competitive time in Serie A. All the best players were in Italy; Van Basten, Gullit, Platini, Falcao, Zico, Baggio, Schillaci, Mattheus, and Baresi. Not just a team of 'Galácticos' either - the finest selection of players were all evenly spread out across the top teams.
After his summer exploits in Mexico, Maradona was in his absolute pomp. While the team won the title a few weeks later against Fiorentina to kickstart a party that lasted months, the narrow win five matches earlier against the great Juventus is the game to savour.
Atalanta 0-1 Napoli (1987)
A double-winning domestic season isn't a bad way to follow up captaining your side to a World Cup win, is it?
Napoli's Coppa Italia campaign was a long and brilliant one; played 11, won 11. The defence was only breached four times in a competition where Gli Azzurri blitzed their opponents. In the two-legged final of 1987, the result was a formality after Napoli had destroyed Atalanta 3-0 at the San Paolo.
Not content with just winning the competition, the champions of Italy went to Bergamo and came home with an away win. Bruno Giordano got the only goal of the game as the Partenopei capped off their greatest ever season.
Napoli 3-0 AC Milan (1989)
After two consecutive seasons of finishing in second place, Napoli came into the 1989/90 season with vengeance in their hearts. Ending the season as champions seemed improbable as Maradona seemed fatigued and had begun to tire of the relentless obsession that the city had for him.
Diego had even asked to leave the club but 'El Pibe de Oro' was denied by the chairman Corrado Ferlaino and Maradona began the following season with a renewed desire to win. Early on in the season, they welcomed their great rivals Milan to the San Paolo and set down a marker.
A team consisting of Rijkaard, Baresi and Costacurta would be soundly beaten. Diego struck 16 goals in his most prolific season and capped off this convincing win by deftly dinking the ball over Milan's Galli.
Napoli 3-0 Juventus (1989)
It's always a good day when you beat Juventus. Even though the final against Stuttgart was the crowning achievement, the Partenopei's route to the UEFA Cup final was capped by a second-leg comeback against Juventus in the quarter-finals.
In the semi-finals, they would beat a very good Bayern Munich side, but memorably, they overcame a two-goal deficit against Juve. Maradona (who else?) led from the front by notching a penalty in the sixth minute and set up his strike partner Careca to level the tie.
With the San Paolo already in full voice, mesmerised by the iconic Diego, it blew its proverbial lid as Alessandro Renica headed home in the 119th minute. Ecstasy.
Juventus 0-2 Napoli (2012)
Napoli consigned Alessandro Del Piero to defeat in his final game ever for Juventus as Gli Azzurri beat the Serie A champions in the Coppa Italia final at Rome's Stadio Olimpico.
In what had been an even game to that point, perhaps with the Old Lady just shading it, back-up keeper Marco Storari rashly took out the onrushing Edison Cavani. The chiseled Uruguayan dusted himself down to dispatch the penalty and give the lead to Napoli.
With Juventus chasing the game, club legend Marek Hamsik slotted home to seal the result in the 83rd minute. Fittingly, the Neopolitan captain and brother of Fabio, Paolo Cannavaro lifted his first and only honour 17 years after joining the club as an academy player.
Fiorentina 1-3 Napoli (2014)
Current captain and hometown boy, Lorenzo Insigne, etched himself into Neopolitan history with a match-winning performance in the 2014 Coppa Italia final. Slid in by the industrious Marek Hamsik, Insigne took the shot early, curling in a sumptuous finish that went in off the post.
Six minutes later, another slick counter-attack by Napoli pierced Fiorentina's defence. A ball across the penalty box was not dealt with by a defence at sixes and sevens, but that man Insigne timed his run to perfection to hit a deflected shot home.
Vargas struck for La Viola to keep the game competitive but never really troubled the Napoli defence, and a late Dries Mertens strike wrapped up Gli Azzurri's sixth Coppa Italia.
Napoli 3-2 Sampdoria (2017)
Maradona didn't just bring unprecedented success to a provincial club - he set standards. Diego scored 115 goals in 259 games for the club, becoming the club's greatest ever goalscorer.
In December 2017, Slovakian midfielder Marek Hamsik overtook El Diez, scoring his 116th goal for the club in a topsy-turvy win against Sampdoria.
All five goals were scored in the first 40 minutes, with Napoli twice coming from behind to beat the Blucerchiati. Hamsik completed history in the 39th minute, sweeping home from close range to keep the Partenopei top at Christmas.
Napoli 4-0 Frosinone (2016)
If your most recent memory of Gonzalo Higuaín is of a lumbering forward in a Chelsea shirt, you might find it difficult to think of the Argentinian as one of the most potent strikers in Serie A history.
In the record-equaling campaign of the 2015/16 season, Higuaín took his goalscoring exploits to the next level. Back in 1928/29, Gino Rossetti set a record of 36 goals in a single season - a record that had stood for 85 years.
Under the management of Maurizio Sarri, Higuain matched Rossetti's record in 35 matches, finishing his season off with a hat-trick against Frosinone in the final game of the season. Lethal.