Napoli opened the Serie A season after 17 minutes when Matteo Politano crossed and Scott McTominay scored, mirroring their title-sealing connection from three months earlier. McTominay's header confirmed him as Serie A MVP for 2024-25 and provided the league's first goal of 2025-26. He led vigorous defensive and attacking work, breaking up Sassuolo's responses, taking shots and rattling the crossbar. Kevin De Bruyne made his Serie A debut amid major expectations, drew large pre-season crowds, and appeared to settle into a fluid Napoli formation with McTominay rotating positions in a notional 4-1-4-1.
Winning the Scudetto changes nothing, he had said in one interview earlier this month. We need to recapture and maintain that mentality we found last year. Talk about living your values. McTominay led by furious example, covering ground and menacing Sassuolo's defence. After scoring, it was he who broke up the Neroverdi's attempted response, he who took the next shot and he again who rattled the crossbar with an effort from outside the box.
Napoli's signing of the Belgium international, and two-time Premier League player of the year, was this summer's biggest transfer coup. Even in pre-season, his presence drew sellout crowds to sleepy towns for uncompetitive friendlies. De Bruyne confessed to finding it all a bit weird. Perhaps McTominay has helped him to settle. The Naples-published newspaper Il Mattino reported them as being inseparable.
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