An emotional Romelu Lukaku scored his first goal of the season to seal a last-gasp 2-1 victory for Napoli at Verona.

Lukaku, who missed the first four months of the season with a thigh injury, pounced in the 96th minute to stop Napoli dropping valuable points at Stadio Marc'Antonio Bentegodi.

Napoli needed just two minutes to get in front. Antonio Vergara helped Matteo Politano's cross on to Rasmus Hojlund, who looped a lovely header across goal and in off the post.

Eljif Elmas forced Lorenzo Montipo into action with a powerful drive midway through the first half and Hojlund would have had a second had Andrias Edmundsson not made an important clearance after the Denmark international rounded the Verona goalkeeper.

Napoli were furious when Verona drew level in the 64th minute. Alessandro Buongiorno felt he was fouled by Kieron Bowie before putting the ball behind, but a corner was awarded and it sat up nicely for Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro to lash past Alex Meret, with a touch off Hojlund.

Antonio Conte was shown a yellow card as his frustrations grew and Verona pushed for a winner, which they nearly got when Meret missed a cross at the back post, but Bowie could not turn it home.

Lukaku made Verona pay for that missed chance when he drilled Giovane Simeone's deflected cross past Montipo to keep Napoli's Champions League qualification hopes on track.

Data Debrief: Lukaku back on target

Having missed much of the season through injury, Lukaku scored his first Serie A goal since converting against Cagliari on May 23, 2025.

The gap of 281 days between league goals is the longest in his career in the top-five European leagues.

There was not much to split the two sides, with Verona producing 0.31 expected goals from eight shots to Napoli's 0.85, also from eight attempts, as Lukaku's touch made the all-important difference.