NAPLES – Rino Gattuso's Napoli eliminated Antonio Conte's Inter and qualified for the Italian Cup final .
The Calabrian technician sent a kiss to the sky – here the images – and dedicated this milestone to his sister who passed away shortly after fighting a bad evil.
These gestures thus felt by Gattuso touched everyone, even the Inter fans who had just witnessed the elimination of their team.
Sometimes humanity manages to impose itself on football rivalry. The demonstration is the virality of Gattuso's gestures on social networks in the immediate post game.
Gattuso and Conte protagonists in the San Paolo desert.
An almost 'non-regulatory' embrace, a kiss addressed to heaven by the Napoli coach in memory of his recently-missed sister, then their determination to dominate the silence of the deserted San Paolo amid screams and indications.
Rino Gattuso and Antonio Conte, even more protagonists than usual in the Italian Cup return semifinal.
105 days after the last match in the stadium before the pandemic.
But with them also three sanitary workers from Cotugno , in a white coat in the center of the field, with the players lined up around the central circle with their heads down, to applaud them.
Thus, with the commemoration of the victims and the tribute to the doctors' commitment, football at the San Paolo stadium is back.
Without audience, with very few journalists and photographers all wearing masks, President De Laurentiis in a deserted tribune.
A surreal atmosphere that did not involve the fans in an empty Fuorigrotta.
The ultras of the curves, which in the past weeks had strongly contested the banners of the football played with the banners around the city, have not been seen.
And so outside the stadium a group of children with the ball asked why they could not access the street next to the stadium to play like every evening.
They had forgotten there was a game.
Someone was waiting for the Naples buses outside the traditional entrance, but they were disappointed.
Both buses arrived from the side of the guest grandstand for an entrance away from the eyes, avoiding crowds outside the stadium.
The two teams underwent anti-coronavirus checks.
Inside the San Paolo the anti-covid controls have been strictly enforced.
With the measurement of temperature and signs with the precautions to follow scattered everywhere.
But the show has started again, with the warm-up with the music that echoed between the empty stands and the entry into the field of the two teams by two separate entrances.
Inter entered as they did years ago from the stairs leading from the changing rooms behind one of the two doors, the Naples from the tunnel under the Posillipo grandstand.
The meeting in midfield, the greeting between Conte and Gattuso, the minute of silence.
Then the game, which started at a slow pace, in an alienating atmosphere, with the screams of Conte and Gattuso reverberating, but to which the players will get used to it soon: football, for now, can only work like this (source Ansa, YouTube video ).
Source: Blitz Quotidiano