Napoli may have found a new star in Romelu Lukaku.
The former Chelsea forward helped set up two goals and scored one himself as Napoli won 4-0 at Cagliari on Sunday, marking their third consecutive victory in the Italian league.
Defending champion Inter Milan barely avoided their first defeat of the season with a 1-1 draw at Monza.
Under new coach Antonio Conte, Napoli seems to be returning to the strong form they showed when they won the league title in 2023, moving away from the problems of last season.
Victor Osimhen, a key player from that title-winning team, has left, and Lukaku has been brought in to replace him. This reunion with Conte is notable since they previously won Serie A together at Inter in 2021.
“I strongly wanted Romelu, as I always have throughout my career, because we’re talking about an atypical player,” Conte said. “He’s not yet at his top level but he’s a player who will become fundamental for us.”
Conte lost his first league match in charge, but Napoli has won all three games since then, scoring nine goals and conceding only one.
Lukaku scored on his debut and was given his first start for Napoli on Sunday.
He was a threat from the beginning and assisted the first goal in the 18th minute by passing Matteo Politano’s cutback to Giovanni Di Lorenzo, whose shot was deflected by Cagliari defender Yerry Mina.
The game had to be stopped for about eight minutes in the first half due to crowd issues, but it did not affect the entertaining match in Sardinia.
Napoli’s goalkeeper Alex Meret was crucial in maintaining their lead, making several excellent saves to deny Roberto Piccoli and Sebastiano Luperto, and also managing to tip a stunning long-range shot from Razvan Marin off the crossbar.
