Izuchukwu Okosi
Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen was in imperious form on Friday night as Serie A leaders, Napoli crushed second-placed Juventus 5-1 at the Diego Maradona stadium.
The Nigerian international scored a brace, his first against the opposition, and assisted another scored by Georgian forward, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, in the rout that brought Juventus’ revival to a humiliating end.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe victory opens a 10-point gap at the top of the table with goals from Amir Rahmani and Elif Elmas on either side of Osimhen’s second.
World Cup winner, Ángel Di María halved the deficit for Juventus shortly before halftime but Napoli ran away with it after the break.
Defending champion AC Milan can trim the gap to Napoli back to seven points with a win at Lecce on Saturday.
There is a strong rivalry between Napoli and Juventus and the visitors from Turin were roundly jeered when they appeared.
Juventus was full of confidence after eight straight wins without conceding a goal and was also able to hand Federico Chiesa his first start since tearing his cruciate ligament more than a year ago.
However, Napoli took the lead in the 14th minute. Wojciech Szczęsny brilliantly parried an acrobatic shot from Kvaratskhelia but Osimhen headed in the rebound.
It was the first goal Juventus conceded in 770 minutes.
That eventually sparked Juventus into life and Di María hit the crossbar after rushing onto a wayward pass from Rahmani.
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Napoli doubled its lead in the 39th when Osimhen returned the favour for Kvaratskhelia, rolling across the area for his unmarked teammate to slot into the bottom right corner.
Di María then pulled one back for Juventus three minutes before the break but that proved to be a false dawn for the Bianconeri.
Napoli extended its advantage 11 minutes after the restart when a corner came to Rahmani in the middle of the area and he blasted it in.
Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen combined again in the 65th with the latter heading in a cross from Georgia forward for his 13th goal in 14 league matches in all competitions (12 in the league alone).
The humiliation was completed in the 72nd when Elmas’ effort was deflected past Szczęsny.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
