Napoli pray Victor Osimhen returns for Champions League date with AC Milan
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Napoli striker Victor Osimhen (right) is doubtful for the team's Champions League clash with AC Milan due to a thigh injury.
PHOTO: AFP
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MILAN – Napoli are sweating on the return of star striker Victor Osimhen for the first leg of their all-Italian Champions League quarter-final, as they head towards possibly two of the biggest matches in the club’s history in unconvincing form.
The Serie A leaders need just four more wins from nine games to secure their first league title since 1990 after a 2-1 win at Lecce over the weekend – though they lacked a cutting edge which Luciano Spalletti’s side will need in Wednesday’s first leg at the San Siro.
Napoli are in the last eight of the Champions League for the first time.
The way they have progressed through the competition, and being placed on the other side of the draw from European football’s contemporary powerhouses, has made them dark horses.
However, as the season has progressed, they have become increasingly dependent on the dynamism of Osimhen and winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, and a thigh injury for Serie A’s leading scorer has highlighted his importance to his team’s overall play in their last two matches in which they struggled.
“It does become difficult without Osimhen, because he has this way of running into space and a physical presence, he can draw everyone to him and then create space,” said Spalletti.
The coach will be hoping that the Nigerian international returns on Wednesday also because he will probably be without the 24-year-old’s main replacement Giovanni Simeone, who suffered a thigh injury of his own after coming on as a substitute against Lecce.
Osimhen has stayed – compared to previous seasons at least – relatively injury free this season and the impact that has had on Napoli is very easy to see.
Regardless of the 25 goals he has scored in all competitions, he provides Napoli the perfect outlet for his team when things are not going according to plan.
He works incredibly hard to chase down and hold on to long balls sent forward from under-pressure teammates, allowing midfielders to break through opposition pressing and latch onto his layoffs.
“When I say that I always put the team first, those aren’t just words. You can see that in how I play, right?” said Osimhen in an interview with France Football published last weekend.
“It’s hunger, something I’ve always had inside myself. And thankfully here with the coach Spalletti you don’t have any choice – at Napoli the attackers are the first line of defence.”
Milan coach Stefano Pioli will have most of his first-choice players available, save the injured Pierre Kalulu, after making a host of changes for their goalless draw with Empoli last Friday.
The San Siro has seen plenty of big European nights and will be packed again on Wednesday, as Milan hunt their first semi-final since they were the continent’s kings for the seventh and last time back in 2007, when they edged out Liverpool 2-1 in the Athens final.
And Pioli is expected to stick with the same XI which gave Napoli their biggest beating – 4-0 earlier in April – of their otherwise triumphant season, in the hope that his team’s European pedigree shines through. AFP
