Super Eagles red hot striker Victor Osimhen became the just fourth Napoli player to score sixteen goals in the first 21 Serie A games of a season with his brace against Spezia yesterday.
According to statisticians at OPTA, the Nigeria international joins three former Napoli players achieved the feat, namely Luis Vinicio (1955-56), Edinson Cavani of Uruguay (2012-13) and Argentina’s Gonzalo Higuaín (2015-16).
With the 3-0 victory at the Alberto Picco Stadium, Napoli have gone sixteen points clear at the top of the Italian Serie A table ahead of tonight’s Milan derby.
Napoli won their fifth game on the bounce after punishing three individual mistakes from the Little Eagles players.
After a goalless first half, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia broke the deadlock when he converted a penalty two minutes into the second half after a naive handball by Arkadiusz Reca.
Osimhen doubled the advantage with a trademark towering header that beat Polish goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski in the 68th minute and five minutes later, the Super Eagles striker netted his sixteenth of the season.
Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti had the luxury of substituting Osimhen in the 82nd minute with his side 3-0 up.
“Congratulations to the team, it’s good to contribute two goals. Big respect to Spezia, they gave us a good fight in the first half,” Osimhen reportedly told Sky Sport Italia. “We needed these points to keep the momentum going. I’m happy with the win and of course to be in the history of Napoli is a great privilege for me, so I am very happy for this.”
He added: “All the victories are important, we need to keep the momentum and try to win all games. It is not going to be easy of course, Serie A is a very competitive league and we have to be on top of our game. We go back, we prepare for the next game that is the most important thing.”
A reported curious incident before kick-off during the warm-up saw Osimhen running over and clambering into the end with the Spezia supporters to hug a young lady, posing for selfies on the way back out.
“I was making the practice shot, I shot over the goal and there was a lady in the middle of the fans. I think she was looking at her phone, the ball hit her in the face and I felt so sorry, as I didn’t mean to do that. I had to show my appreciation and say sorry for that.”