The PA announcer at the San Paolo stadium could barely restrain himself. He bellowed out Pepe Reina’s name like it was the crescendo to an aria.
The Napoli goalkeeper had just produced an injury-time save of stunning agility and speed of reaction to push a header from Inter Milan's Miranda onto his right-hand post. And so Napoli, holding onto their 2-1 advantage, were headed to the top of Serie A.
“He’s a wizard,” remarked the Napoli captain, Marek Hamsik of the Spanish keeper who a few months ago appeared to heading into a comfortable background role at Bayern Munich.
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He seemed content to enjoy the prestige of being at the Bundesliga champions, if only on call should injury or suspension deprive Bayern of their first-choice gloveman Manuel Neuer on the odd afternoon or evening.
Reina at times in Germany seemed valued almost as much for his infectious enthusiasm in the dressing-room and training pitch as his still sharp reflexes.
Reina, 33, is now enjoying quite a renaissance. Against Inter, he produced a number of fine saves, and when he did concede a goal, a run of 534 minutes of football unbeaten came to an end.
There are a number of reasons Napoli have taken a step ahead of the rest in what has been a diverting tussle at the summit of the Italian top division – Gonzalo Higuain’s goals a prominent one – but Reina’s authority is an important as any.
When he signed for the club last summer, there was an element of risk. The Napoli hierarchy knew he would feel at home, because he and his family had embraced the city warmly during Reina’s season there on loan, in 2013/14. Liverpool had been his parent club at that stage, and former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez who had just joined Napoli, his main patron. Benitez has signed Reina twice now, for Liverpool back in 2005 and then for Napoli.
What Benitez could not do was prevent the English club then selling Reina to Bayern in the summer of 2014. There, Reina accepted the role of back-up, one he has been obliged to perform throughout his career as an international.
He has a fine collection of medals for Spain, two European championships and a World Cup, but his bad luck is to have coincided with Iker Casillas, the contemporary who set a record for Spain caps and skippered the most successful Spain team in history.
As a young man, too, Reina had to accept a second-fiddle role.
He grew up with Barcelona, where Victor Valdes was his rival as a junior then a senior. Valdes ended up owning the keeper’s jersey as Barca annexed the big club prizes from 2005 to 2011. Reina, with Spain and then again with Bayern, learned to make the best of being a reserve in a position where the opportunities for starts are often very limited. He is not a sulker when not in action. Rather, he is liked, he is sociable, cheerful and a popular figure.
He is also a determined professional, a modern keeper with good distribution skills and fine shot-stopping technique. To have him on the sidelines in the Bundesliga seemed a waste. And Napoli knew last summer that they needed some work in their overall defending.
In 2014/15, Benitez’s last season in charge, the gloves were shared between the Brazilian Rafael and the Argentine Mariano Andujar. They let in 54 goals between them in the league. No team in the top half of Serie A were leakier than Napoli, who finished fifth.
A better organised defence this campaign takes some of the credit for the improvement, although the centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly, ascribes much of his growing confidence to Reina.
“He has helped me improve a lot,” the Senegalese said. “He gives me a lot of guidance and instructions.”
Reina’s compatriot, Raul Albiol, calls the keeper “exceptional” and is grateful that some of the critical heat that was on him last season has cooled as Napoli, who play Bologna tomorrow, dare to dream of a long run in top spot.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Alvaro Negredo – has been less than conspicuous lately, cast out to the margins at Valencia, where the forward hopes a change of management will help him back to prominence.
No-Man's Land under Nuno: Negredo was among the first Valencia players to welcome the appointment of former Manchester United player Gary Neville as coach on Thursday. He was relieved to see Nuno Espirito Santo depart after he had fallen out with Nuno, having criticised tactical decisions made by the coach.
Manchester Men: Of all the Valencia squad, Negredo will be the footballer whose characteristics Neville knows best. The centre-forward spent a season in the Premier League with Manchester City, while he was making his reputation as a television pundit.
Champion of England: Negredo won a Premier League title with City, and contributed six goals to a 2013/14 League Cup campaign that yielded a further trophy. But his season in England was not an unparalleled success, and having scored nine times in his first 20 matches he suffered a drought in the latter half of the campaign.
Wandering warrior: That convinced City and the player, facing competition from other strikers, to accept a loan move to Valencia, in a deal that became permanent last July. His reputation in the Primera Liga – where he came through the youth system at Real Madrid and scored regularly for Almeria and then Sevilla was good – hence the price agreed by Valencia: some €27 million (Dh108m) for a man who turned 30 in the summer.
Fresh motivation: Neville will hope to get Valencia some return on that investment as of next week, when Negredo, whose recovery from an appendix operation may prevent him starting against Barcelona today, should be under consideration for the key Uefa Champions League clash with Lyon, the senior Neville's debut in management.
MATCH OF THE WEEK: Real Madrid v Getafe
Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez was keen to focus on football matters rather than the midweek Copa del Rey eligibility rumpus as his team prepared to face Getafe on Saturday.
Spanish radio station Cadena Ser last night reported that Benitez’s side were thrown out of the tournament after fielding an ineligible player in the cup victory over Cadiz on Wednesday night.
Denis Cheryshev scored the opening goal in the 3-1 win, but the Russia international should have been suspended after he received three yellow cards in the competition for Villarreal last season.
The fall-out has overshadowed the build-up to Getafe’s Bernabeu visit, but manager Benitez insisted that was not at his mind at his pre-match news conference.
“The president has made things clear. That is the truth, and there is nothing more to say on our part,” Benitez said, with his team trying to build on last weekend’s 2-0 league win at Eibar.
“The president has already explained the situation. We are here to speak about the Getafe game. Everything that happened was clear. I will not go into these issues.”
Madrid president Florentino Perez vowed at a news conference on Thursday that his club would fight any sanctions, saying neither the player nor the club were informed of the suspension.
Benitez has been under the spotlight in recent weeks following league defeats to Sevilla and bitter rivals Barcelona.
“When you come to the best club in the world, you know there is a greater attention to every detail,” he said. “I know that and I have clear ideas.
“We will continue to work and concentrate on doing things the best way possible. It is a great team and we can do important things.”
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