ITALIAN SERIE A
Duro Ikhazuagbe with agency report
Nigerian international, Victor Osimhen, will hope to resume from where he stopped after the World Cup break this evening at the Giuseppe Meazza with leaders Napoli visiting Inter Milan.
The Italian Serie A is the fourth of Europe’s top five leagues to resume from the break. Osimhen who was on a prolonged holiday due to the non-qualification of the Super Eagles for the World Cup in Qatar, is the leading top scorer of Serie A with nine goals. The Nigerian striker can increase his tally with another good day in office this evening and help Napoli extend their eight-point lead atop the standings.
Before the Serie A went on break in early November, Osimhen was on target in the last match against Udinese. He rose above the away side’s defence to head home his ninth league goal of 2022/23 season, leaving him as the Italian topflight’s stand-alone leading scorer after 15 matches. Now, in his third season since switching from Lille in the French Ligue 1 to the tough Serie A, the 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup winner with the Golden Eaglets is on the way to becoming the Top Dog in Italy! Ciro Immobile, the top scorer in three of the last five seasons, suffered muscle injuries before November’s interlude, thus limiting his game time in the final six games before the break.
Tonight’s Match day 16 fixture at Inter promises to be full of fireworks with the host aiming to end Napoli’s 15-match unbeaten run. Two Inter players, Andre Onana (Cameroon) and Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) who had better-forgotten performances at Qatar 2022 will hope to hit ground running in the New Year with this testy fixture.
Second-placed AC Milan who are eight points behind the Partenopei are also on the road. They are to lock horns with 12th-placed Salernitana at Stadio Arechi.
Surprisingly, Lukaku whom Osimhen faces in tonight’s game recognises the Nigeria international’s outstanding ability.
“(Luciano) Spalletti has done a great job, we have to say,” Lukaku told Sky Sports yesterday. “Osimhen scores many goals and is really strong. Now he’s the best striker. We have to be honest. He’s strong, and he’s doing really well for Napoli.
“They are first in the standings. We have respect, but not fear,” observed the bully Belgian who exited the World Cup without any outstanding feat in the Middle East.
2022 was a significant year for Osimhen despite the challenges in adapting to Spalletti’s needs from a central striker and continued problems with injuries.
The Tuscan-born trainer could extol the centre-forward’s stratospheric talent one week and censure his intermittent inclination to be a one-man band the week later. That ambivalence has pushed the young striker to the top of the scoring charts this season, despite missing four rounds of games through injury.
Giacomo Raspadori thrived in his absence, fulfilling the manager’s needs by combining better with teammates in the final third. Undaunted, Osimhen’s roaring return to action demonstrated he had not listened to the outside noise and was Napoli’s man for all seasons, even if the Italy international stole the spotlight for several weeks.
The 24-year-old has contributed to a goal in all but one game since returning to action in mid-October, scoring his first Serie A hat-trick in the 4-0 thrashing of Sassuolo at the end of that month.
There may have been no goal involvement in the 2-0 win over Empoli, but the Nigerian won the penalty from which the Partenopei opened the scoring.
That said, the most impressive feature of Osimhen’s campaign has been the decisive execution to back up the final-third menace he has always carried, an added component of the striker’s game to worry Inter’s backline.
The Napoli marksman netted a brilliant winner against Jose Mourinho’s Roma and scored and set up another at Atalanta despite giving away an early penalty at the Gewiss Stadium. Spalletti’s crew won 2-1.
Having Osimhen to call upon at the start of 2023 is a benefit, especially in a month that would see Napoli face Juventus and Roma after playing Inter this week.
Spalletti’s team head into Match day16 unbeaten in Serie A, winning on both visits to Stadio Olimpico and claiming maximum points on their last trip to San Siro in September, defeating AC Milan 2-1, to prove their big-game capabilities.
They would need to pick up where they left off before the intermission to put paid to the Nerazzurri’s unbeaten run in their annual opener that has stood since 2014. That streak has seen Inter claim maximum points in their last three year-opening fixture.
Former Inter President, Massimiliano Moratti, did not stop short of naming Napoli’s biggest threats before this week’s showdown.
“Kvaratskhelia and striker Osimhen, no doubt! They are the two players who can decide the match against Inter,” said the ex-Nerazzurri supremo.
Napoli are not yet halfway to claiming their first Scudetto since 1990 but an eight-point lead to start 2023 is a healthy advantage, nonetheless.
Another top performance and result tonight would strengthen the belief that this could be their year after three decades of discouraging anticipation.
