BEVERLY HILLS, March 22, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen came off the bench as a 66th minute substitute for Napoli’s hero-of-the-Derby Belgian striker Dries Mertens to see out a victorious 2-0 win over fierce rivals AS Roma in the race for the last UEFA Champions League slot in the Serie A. Mertens bagged an early brace to reach 100 Serie A goals in his determined drive to give Napoli manager, Gennaro Gattuso, a survival chance.
The 43-year-old coach was under pressure in mid-season when heavy investments like the signing of Osimhen from Ligue 1 side Lille and injury to key players conjoined to cause a decline of fortunes for his side. Rumours began swirling that his job was on the line, if performances did not improve.
However, the manager’s charges rallied impressively with Mertens leading the charge that stemmed the slide and began a climb back into reckoning. Osimhen’s return to featuring also helped and that improvement continued on Sunday with another big away win, a second consecutive Roma defeat and potentially decisive in the battle for fourth place.
In the head-to-head tussle for fourth place, the Giallorossi appeared to be fatigued from Thursday’s Europa League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk in Kiev. They were also without the services of injured first team squad members like Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Jordan Veretout, Chris Smalling, Juan Jesus and Nicolò Zaniolo, while Bruno Peres was on suspension.
To add to that list, Giovanni Di Lorenzo sat out a ban, with Andrea Petagna, Amir Rrahmani, Faouzi Ghoulam and Stanislav Lobotka receiving treatment. But, Hirving Lozano and Kostas Manolas returned from long lay-offs to a spot on the bench only to see their side capitulate to a better organised Napoli in the Sunday night game.
In the first tie between these sides in November, in the first game Napoli played following the death of the legend of Naples Diego Armando Maradona, Napoli beat Roma 4-0. They dominated possession early on at the Olimpico for this away reverse fixture and could have had more than two goals, but chances went begging in the first half.
That was until Mertens got the opening goal via a cheeky free kick routine. A second Napoli wall obscured the view of Roma goalkeeper Pau Lopez but moved away at the last second so that the Belgian was able to curl his kick into the far corner from the very edge of the box for the opener.
Roma struggled to find some traction but they were pegged back when a Napoli advance ended up with Matteo Politano nodding a crossing back across goal for their Belgian striker to double his tally for the day and head into an empty net. It was a very special goal, as it was the 100th in the Serie A for Mertens, taking him to centurion levels.
Though a Bryan Cristante volley stung the gloves of Napoli goalkeeper David Ospina and Lorenzo Pellegrini’s free header went straight to Ospina, Roma’s efforts at kick-starting a comeback fizzled out with the progress of the match. They tried some more with Rick Karsdorp forcing a tricky Ospina save under the bar with a wayward cross.
However, Osimhen, who ended the match on a yellow card, and his teammates held on for Napoli to keep their hopes of European football next season alive and give their coach more breathing room to stay on in the dugout of the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
