Udinese took the lead through Gerard Deulofeu’s brilliant strike mid-way through the first half before Osimhen netted a second-half brace to secure all three points for Napoli.
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Victor Osimhen scored a double as Napoli beat Udinese 2-1 in the Serie A fixture at Diego Maradona Stadium on Saturday. Udinese took the lead through Gerard Deulofeu’s brilliant strike mid-way through the first half before Osimhen netted a second-half brace to secure all three points for Luciano Spalletti’s side and stay level on points with leaders AC Milan, who will face Cagliari later today.
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A match with a full change of direction: @en_sscnapoli wins against @Udinese_1896 ??@victorosimhen9 scores a brace ⚽⚽#NapoliUdinese #SerieA? #WeAreCalcio pic.twitter.com/slWYdKBKHo
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) March 19, 2022
Napoli started the match on the driving seat as Kalidou Koulibaly’s header from Matteo Politano’s corner kick was plucked out of the air by visiting keeper Marco Silvestri. Lorenzo Insigne, who was back in the starting XI, nodded over the bar from a Politano’s assist before Udinese broke the deadlock against the run of play on 22 minutes.
Roberto Pereyera laid the ball to Deulofeu on the edge of the box and the unmarked Spaniard picked his spot and drilled into the near bottom corner. Few minutes later, the visitors nearly doubled the lead, but Napoli keeper David Ospina made a flying save to deny Pablo Mar’s header from a corner.
A long ball from the back found insigne on the left channel and the Italian cut inside before unleashing a beautiful right-foot curler which forced a full-stretch save from Silvestri. The 31-year-old custodian made another astonishing save on the deflected Fabian Ruiz attempt, sticking out a trailing leg to push it inches past the post.
Napoli came out all guns blazing in the second half and found the equaliser within Seven minutes. Mario Rui’s free-kick was headed home by Osimhen to make the score 1-1. The hosts pushed men forward and substitute Dries Mertens saw his volley from an improbable angle skim the crossbar, but Ospina was tested by Deulofeu at the near post.
Napoli took the lead on 63 minutes courtesy of a nice passing move down the right flank. Politano played a nice little through pass for Giovanni De Lorenzo, whose cut back from the by-line was slotted home by Osimhen from six yards. It was the Nigerian footballer’s fourth goal in two Serie A games.
Osimhen thought he had a hat-trick, but it was ruled offside on a deflected Matteo Politano cross before Mertens tested Silvstri from distance. But Udinese went down to 10 men after Pablo Mari was shown a straight red card. The defender committed a dangerous foul as he kicked Piotr Zielinski at the top of the thigh. Towards the end of the game, Silvestri made a brilliant double-save to deny Mario Rui.
