It was not the best of Europa League debut for Victor Osimhen as Napoli suffered a shock 1-0 home loss to AZ Alkamaar in their Group F opening game on Thursday, Completesports.com reports.
The only goal of the game was scored by Jesper Karlsson in the 57th minute which secured the win for Alkmaar.
Osimhen went close to breaking the deadlock in the 24th minute with a low drive which took a deflection and was well saved by the Standard Liege keeper.
In the 35th minute Osimhen teed up Dries Mertens and the Belgian tried to place his finish in the corner which went just wide.
Osimhen went close again on 63 minutes after getting on the end of Mario Rui’s cross but headed straight to the keeper.
Three minutes after missing the chance to score, Osimhen was them taken off.
In Belgium, Super Eagles duo Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun featured for Rangers in their 2-0 win at Standard Liege in Group D.
Balogun played 90 minutes while Aribo who only returned to action from injury, was introduced in the 67th minute.
James Tavernier put Rangers ahead in the 19th minute from the penalty spot before Kemar Roofe doubled the lead on 90 minutes.
And In Group B, Arsenal came from a goal down to beat home side Austrian side Rapid Wien 2-1.
New signing Thomas Partey made his first start for Arsenal and saw 90 minutes of action.
Goals from David Luiz and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the 70th and 74th minutes, cancelled out Rapid Wien’s goal scored by Taxiarchis Fountas on 51 minutes.
In other results, CSKA Sofia lost 2-0 at home to CFR Cluj, Roma beat Young Boys 2-1 away and Leverkusen thrashed Nice 6-2.
Also, Hapoel Beer Sheva defeated Slavia Prague 3-1, Granada, without Ramon Azeez, beat PSV 2-1 away and Rijeka lost 1-0 at home to Real Sociedad.
By James Agberebi
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COMMENTS
Osimhen almost scored twice today. He did his best. IHEANACHO has 2 assists already. Good players.
Yes, I suppose Kelechi has done enough for both club and country to prove he is coming back to his best form and so deserves by merit to be the 2nd striker to Victor. With a Man of match performance in today’s Europa league match, he is set for another call up to SE. And with Onuachu, Deserers not convincing performance and bench role respectively while Simmy and Sadiqu are yet to gets Rohr’s attention, then the coast is clear for Kelechi to win the long battle for Super Eagles 2nd striker. Congratulations Kelechi, keep shining.
This standard liege must be very strong to be playing 2 matches at a time according to csn and their drunk journalists,hahaha