Osimhen’s Bullet Header Saves Napoli

• Scores 87th-minute equaliser against Cagliari

Nigerian international striker, Victor Osimhen scored a late equalizer for Napoli as they drew 1-1 against Cagliari in a Serie A fixture on Monday night.

The Super Eagles point man came off the bench to salvage a crucial point for the Partenopeans when he met Mario Rui’s cross with a bullet header in the 87th minute, to cancel out Gaston Pereiro’s opening goal for the hosts.

Coach Luciano Spalletti introduced the Nigérian as a 67th-minute substitute for Andrea Petagna and the goal, which has taken his tally to seven in 16 Serie A matches this season, counted as the 11th for him across all competitions.

The result kept Napoli third in the Serie A table with 54 points after 26 matches – two points behind leaders, AC Milan.

The match saw teammate and fellow African, Senegal centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly playing the entire duration for Napoli but was shown a yellow card in the 64th minute while Algeria’s Adam Ounas also joined the fray in the 67th minute as the Partenopeans sought to salvage the day.

After securing back-to-back draws in their last threes games, Osimhen will be hoping to inspire the Partenopeans back to winning ways as they host FC Barcelona at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for the return fixture of their UEFA Europa League game on Thursday. Both teams settled for a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou last week.

Reacting to the outcome of Monday’s match with Cagliari, Coach Spalletti disclosed that Osimhen was close to missing the game, saying; “It was a complicated game for us, Cagliari deserved more. In fact, we deserved something less,” the Italian coach told Football Italia.

According to him; “We never took the game into our own hands, even though we had more possession. They wanted to play this game here and we wanted to play another.

“We have to be happy with the result because it happens to everyone after these Europa League games. We did too little in terms of quality.

“Don’t say it’s everyone anymore, every time it happens in two days we lose 4-5 players. It was good of Osimhen to be available at the last second, he was at risk of not being in the game.” – With Goal.com reports