A brace from Victor Osimhen helped Napoli come back from behind to seal a crucial 2-1 victory over Udinese at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Osimhen made Serie A history for Napoli, following in the footsteps of George Weah, Samuel Eto’o and Mohamed Salah.

This makes him the first-ever Nigerian player to achieve double figures in two consecutive Serie A seasons for Napoli.

In general, the only Africans to have achieved this feat in the Italian top flight were Weah for Milan, Eto’o at Inter and Mo Salah with Roma.

Osimhen has already done better than his debut Italian season, when he finished with 10 Serie A goals in 24 appearances.

Udinese took a shock lead after 22 minutes, as Gerard Deulofeu found the bottom left corner of the net with a fantastic effort from the edge of the area, after a neat through pass by Roberto Pereyra.

The Partenopei’s best opening in the first half came courtesy of Lorenzo Insigne, with his curled effort from the edge of the area going narrowly wide of the far post.

Luciano Spalletti shuffled the pack at half-time as he brought on Dries Mertens and switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation, and it paid off as his side were level within ten minutes of the restart courtesy of Osimhen, with the Nigerian heading in at the back post following a free-kick routine.

The turnaround was complete just ten minutes later, as Osimhen scored an easy tap-in from inside the area following a low cross from the byline by an overlapping Giovanni Di Lorenzo.

The result leaves Napoli level on points with AC Milan at the top of Serie A, having played a game more than their title challengers. (The PUNCH)

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