Victor Osimhen missed one and scored another from the spot as Napoli beat Fiorentina in Sunday’s Serie A tie 1-0 and the celebration continued for their first title in 33 years.
Osimhen in the process erased George Weah’s record of 46 Serie A goals by any African player. The former Golden Eaglets star has now scored 47 goals in only two seasons in the Italian League. He put Napoli in a festive mood since Thursday, when he scored to level up at 1-1 in their game against Udinese at the Dacia Arena.
Fiorentina welcomed the newly crowned Italian champions with a guard of honour at the Diego Maradona Stadium, but when the game began Napoli were not sleeping on their oars. The first half did not produce any goal.
After the break Osimhen forced a penalty off Fiorentina, but he failed to convert, even when the rebound from Pietro Terracciano fell on his path. It was his second penalty miss during the season. However Osimhen made amends when Kvicha Kvaratskhelia won another penalty. This time around he sent Terracciano the wrong way to bring his total goal haul for the season to 22 goals.
“I missed the first one, so I had to score the second one and I had the confidence I would score the second one. It’s a good feeling to get the goal,” Osimhen told DAZN.
He added that with four games to go, he is hopeful of scoring more goals to cement his place as Serie A top scorer of the season. Since 2016 no title winning side has produced the highest goals scorer.
“I think the curse is about to be broken, we still have four games to go and I want to get as many goals as possible, while winning the games,” said Osimhen who wore a new kind of mask for the evening.
“It’s a special mask, the Scudetto and of course I represent my country wherever I play and VO9 is my symbol, so I have the Nigerian flag there. I will keep this one forever.”