As Napoli welcomes Juventus tonight for the standout game of the weekend in Serie A, Super Eagles superstar Victor Osimhen is expected to light up the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona by adding to his ten Serie A goals this season.
Following a scoring blank in Napoli 1-0 top of the table derby loss to Inter Milan at Giuseppe Meazza in their opening Serie A fixture of 2023 , Osimhen became the first player to hit the ten-goal landmark in the 2022/23 Serie A season when Napoli dispatched a ten-man Sampdoria 2-0 at Luigi Ferraris on Sunday. Prolific early in the match, the Nigerian striker could be an early menace for Juventus’ backline, with five of his last six league goals coming before the 25th minute.
Though Luciano Spalletti’s men head into proceedings as the so-called ‘Winter Champions,’ they are all too aware that their battle to land the crown for the first time since 1990 has only reached the halfway point. They enter tonight’s clash knowing that any result will have a substantial bearing on the Scudetto race this season, with seven points separating both sides ahead of the kick-off.
And Osimhen is the man entrusted to keep their title run going. The 24-year-old has been brilliant for Napoli thus far and recently received the Global Soccer Award For The Power Horse Emerging Player Of The Year.
The king of Naples beat Barcelona’s Gavi and Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde to win the for the young talent of the year at a ceremony held in November 2022 at the Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai and was recently nominated among the contenders for the 2023 FIFA team of the year.
For former Juventus midfielder Raffaele Ametrano, Osimhen is the best striker in Serie A, making a huge impression since he joined from Lille in France despite struggling in his first season because of injuries.
But last season, he picked up, scoring 14 goals in 27 Serie A games. This season, he has been absolutely outstanding for the Partenopeans finding the back of net a whooping ten times in 13 games despite being out with an injury for over a month.
The Former Juventus and Napoli midfielder Ametrano has been impressed with what he has seen from Osimhen, and he believes the former VFL Wolfsburg man is the best in Italy.
“Napoli have the strongest centre forward in our league, Victor Osimhen,” Ametrano told TuttoNapoli.
“He is a player who tires you to such an extent that you lose the decisive meter. Even in the game against Sampdoria, he showed his speed.
“It’s not easy to mark Osimhen. He arrives with impressive clarity in the penalty area with the work he manages to do.
“If he manages to have physical and mental continuity he will score a lot of goals between now and the end.”
Read Also: VICTOR OSIMHEN AWARDED THE GLOBE SOCCER POWER HORSE EMERGING PLAYER OF THE YEAR IN NAPLES, ITALY
With Osimhen spearheading their attack, this Napoli side are the perfect embodiment of the modern Serie A, as they are arguably the most free-flowing side in Europe’s top five leagues.
No players in the division have as many goal involvements as their dangerous duo of Victor Osimhen (12) and Georgia’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (11).
Their record of scoring 59 goals in 23 matches this season illustrates why they are so far clear at the top and why they progressed through their Champions League group without much fuss.
This will be a fascinating test of Napoli’s title credentials though, as they failed at Inter just over a week ago and now have Juventus and Roma to come at home in the next fortnight.
The seven-point gap looks healthy, but Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli faltered with Juve in strong pursuit both in 2015-16 and 2017-18, so current boss Luciano Spalletti’s biggest test is still to come.
Juve certainly are charging, after such a woeful start which saw their home support turn their backs on the side, they now find themselves second after a remarkable run of eight consecutive wins without conceding a single goal has seen them surge up the standings.
This is the first time they have won eight on the spin since 2018, back when Massimiliano Allegri was last in charge, on their way to winning an eighth straight Scudetto.
They left it late to beat Udinese, but a piece of brilliance from the returning Federico Chiesa set up Danilo for another 1-0 win.
The Juve faithful will be delighted to welcome back arguably the best player in the division in the form of Chiesa as they look to progress further on an unlikely title challenge which is now well on the cards.
That win over Udinese was not the first time they have left it late since returning to action in the last week either.
Their first game back saw them see off Cremonese by a solitary goal to nil once again, with an injury time free kick from Arkadiusz Milik required to win all three points.
Only Cagliari in 1966-67 have kept more clean sheets at this stage of any Serie A season than Juventus have in this campaign, as Allegri’s side have kept 12 clean sheets after just 17 games.
In the last 15 Serie A seasons, only on one occasion has the side with the best defensive record not won the Scudetto, and Juventus have let in only seven goals all season, six fewer than the next best, league-leaders and upcoming opponents Napoli.
The front page of Gazzetta at the weekend went with the headline ‘La Juve Fa Paura’ – ‘Juve is scary’.
The belief in Italy is that the Old Lady are showing signs of returning to their old selves, winning ugly and being excellent defensively, the qualities they showed before the mess of the past two seasons and despite all the chaos going on at board level within the club.
Hopefully Napoli with Osimhen’s help can put a dent to Juventus recent impregnable armour tonight.