The 30-year-old popped up with a goal with five minutes left to the final whistle to silence the Old Lady at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona
Senegal international Kalidou Koulibaly has explained the reason he used a ‘borrowed’ camera to celebrate his winning goal against Juventus in their 2-1 comeback win on Saturday.
The 30-year-old defender made the difference after he popped up with a goal in the 85th minute to sink Juventus at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and hand them their second defeat of the campaign.
Juventus had taken the lead in the 10th minute courtesy of Alvaro Morata but Napoli waited until the second half to turn things in their favour, first Matteo Politano putting them level in the 57th minute before the burly Koulibaly tapped in the rebound after a save from Wojciech Szczesny.
After scoring the goal, Koulibaly then run towards the touchline and ‘borrowed’ a camera from a photographer, then turned it towards the crowd while pretending to take the click away.
“I saw the fans up there and wanted to keep the moment in a photograph, it was too beautiful!” he told DAZN as quoted by Football Italia.
“This victory is for them because we missed them for over a year and to see them back in the stands makes us so happy.”
On the game, Koulibaly said: “We knew that both teams were missing important players, and it’s a pity we conceded that goal, but we had the right maturity to react and change things.”
With the result putting Napoli eight points clear ahead of Juventus in the Serie A title race, the Senegalese international said: “It’s too early, we are not thinking about anything except our own progress, winning one game at a time.”
Meanwhile, Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti praised "great man" Koulibaly after the comeback win over Juventus,
“He really is remarkable. He always adds those two or three notches more than anyone else, he’s an extraordinary leader and a great man. We are what we do, not what we say,” Spalletti told DAZN as quoted Football Italia.
On the game, Spalletti said he was impressed with his team’s reaction after going down 1-0 in the first half.
“A coach tries to make changes during the half-time break, but the reaction of the players is what’s fundamental,” Spalletti added.
“Nobody gives you results; you have to turn these things around. We did more in the second half, added Adam Ounas in that position and that opened up a few more spaces.
“There was general pressure all around that prompted errors, both from Juventus and Napoli. Juve were sitting deeper and their wing-backs caused us problems because they put dangerous balls in behind the defence. We have to do better.
“We deserved to win, but it wasn’t as clean a victory as it could’ve been.”
Napoli are topping the log on nine points from three matches while the defeat saw Juventus drop to 16th position with one point from the same number of games.