{"id":534227,"date":"2026-03-02T07:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/?p=534227"},"modified":"2026-03-02T07:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T02:07:16","slug":"lukaku-saves-napolis-blushes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/lukaku-saves-napolis-blushes\/","title":{"rendered":"Lukaku saves Napoli\u2019s blushes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>He scored a late winner against Verona<br \/>\n MILAN<br \/>\nRomelu Lukaku kept Napoli on course for a Champions League spot with a last-gasp winner in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 victory over rock-bottom Verona, the Belgium forward\u2019s first goal of the season. Lukaku forced home Giovane\u2019s cross to give third-placed Napoli all three points with the last kick of the game at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi.<br \/>\nNapoli had looked like dropping points in northern Italy when Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro levelled Rasmus Hojlund\u2019s early opener in the 65th minute.<br \/>\nBut Lukaku, who only played his first game of the season in late January, gave Napoli a huge win with both Como and Atalanta pushing for a top-four placing.<br \/>\nHowever Napoli\u2019s title defence is all but over as they trail runaway league leaders Inter Milan, who host Genoa in Saturday\u2019s late match, by 11 points after an injury-ravaged season.<br \/>\nNapoli were missing key midfielders Scott McTominay, Kevin De Bruyne and Andre-Frank Anguissa on Saturday, as well as captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo.<br \/>\nVerona, under interim coach Paolo Sammarco following the sacking of Paolo Zanetti earlier this month, are 10 points from safety after a 12th straight match without a win.<br \/>\nComo, who face Inter in the first leg of the Italian Cup semi-finals on Tuesday, strolled to 3-1 victory over strugglers Lecce to continue their push for a first-ever qualification for European football.<br \/>\nCesc Fabregas\u2019s team are two points behind Roma, in fourth and Juventus\u2019 opponents on Sunday, and five behind Napoli.<br \/>\nStar man Nico Paz started on the bench for Como ahead of that clash with Inter, the Argentine starlet coming on midway through the second half with the hosts already two goals to the good.<br \/>\nComo went behind early to a fine Lassana Coulibaly header, but Tasos Douvikas, Jesus Rodriguez and Marc Oliver Kempf all netted before half-time to secure a simple three points.<br \/>\nComo moved two points ahead of sixth-placed Juve who face Roma trying to stay in touch with the Champions League places after being eliminated from Europe\u2019s elite club competition by Galatasaray on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He scored a late winner against Verona MILAN Romelu Lukaku kept Napoli on course for a Champions League spot with a last-gasp winner in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 victory over rock-bottom Verona, the Belgium forward\u2019s first goal of the season. Lukaku forced home Giovane\u2019s cross to give third-placed Napoli all three points with the last kick of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-534227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lukaku saves Napoli\u2019s blushes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/lukaku-saves-napolis-blushes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lukaku saves Napoli\u2019s blushes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He scored a late winner against Verona MILAN Romelu Lukaku kept Napoli on course for a Champions League spot with a last-gasp winner in Saturday\u2019s 2-1 victory over rock-bottom Verona, the Belgium forward\u2019s first goal of the season. Lukaku forced home Giovane\u2019s cross to give third-placed Napoli all three points with the last kick of [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/lukaku-saves-napolis-blushes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Lead Pakistan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DailyLeadPak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-02T02:07:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/37780.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Web Desk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@DailyLeadPak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" 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