September 27, (THEWILL) – Victor Osimhen’’s current form for Serie A side Napoli bodes well as Nigeria prepares for matchdays three and four of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Osimhen has been in fine goalscoring form for his club as they sit atop the Serie A table. The forward became the joint-top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues in September, on par with Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema, after he found the back of the net yet again in Napoli’s match against Cagliari.
Osimhen scored his sixth goal of the season in the 11th minute. As he has done since returning from the international break, where he scored for Nigeria against Cape Verde, he was a handful for Cagliari defenders for the 77 minutes he was on the pitch.
After another of his swift intrusions threatened to punish the visitors further, Diego Godin had no other way to cope with Osimhen’s pace and physicality than to bring him down in the box, leaving referee Marco Piccinini no choice but to award a penalty.
Lorenzo Insigne buried the spot-kick, giving the hosts a comfortable 2-0 victory, a jump back to the summit of the league standings and maintaining their perfect start to the 2021/2022 season.
Only the star-studded Paris Saint-Germain side in Ligue 1 have managed to maintain a similar winning start, even though they have played eight matches so far compared to the six of the Serie A.
Spalletti was effusive in his praise of the Nigerian forward. He said, “From an athletic point of view, Osimhen is something incredible. He manages to cover a distance of twenty meters in three or four heartbeats and he makes them alone long before the midfielders come out. In addition to a bomber, he is a great team man”.
With just one more Serie A matchday tie before the international break, an away fixture against Fiorentina, there is every likelihood that Osimhen and his teammates will maintain their start to the season.
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.
