Victor Osimhen
By Emmanuel Afonne
Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen has practically dragged his Napoli team to the quarter finals of the European Champions League as he scored twice on Wednesday to help his team to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Napoli is attaining such quarter-finals status for the first time.
The 24-year-old who scored in each half of the game was also the hero in their 2-0 win in the first leg match in Germany about a fortnight ago.
Osimhen scored his first goal of the match with a header in first-half stoppage time.
He bagged his 23rd goal in 28 matches in all competitions this season when he found the net with a tap-in after a quick four-pass Napoli combination in the 53rd minute.
Piotr Zielinski then converted a penalty kick to secure a 5-0 aggregate win.
Prior to the game, fighting broke out in the Italian city as fans set a police car on fire and threw stones at buses and police.
Italian authorities had banned German fans from attending the game amid concerns about possible violence, but some Eintracht Frankfurt supporters made the trip to Italy anyway.
It was peaceful inside the Diego Maradona stadium and the hosts were in control from the start.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia went close with a mazy run into the box in the 19th minute.
The Georgian was denied again in the 43rd minute with goalkeeper Kevin Trapp kicking the winger’s close-range shot wide.
Osimhen opened the scoring in first-half stoppage time after being given far too much space in the penalty box to rise high and head in a measured Matteo Politano cross.
The German side were thereafter under pressure from Napoli’s relentless pressing game and it was Osimhen who scored again.
He tapped in from close range to kill off any hopes of a German comeback, becoming the first Napoli player to score in both legs of a Champions League knockout match.
The Serie A leaders capped a superb two-legged performance with Zielinski’s penalty kick after the Pole was brought down in the box.
Elsewhere, Real Madrid cruised into the 2022/2023 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.
Karim Benzema’s second-half goal secured a comfortable 1-0 win over Liverpool in their last-16 second leg game to wrap up a 6-2 aggregate victory.
The Spanish giants sealed victory in the 79th minute when Vinicius Jr flicked a loose ball inside the area to Benzema who tapped it into the net.(Reuters/NAN)
