Victor Osimhen’s Napoli’s hopes of landing a first Serie A title in 32 years suffered another setback, after they surrendered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 away to Napoli.
For the second week running Napoli have failed to hold on to a lead after conceding a stoppage time goal against Roma to draw 1-1 last weekend.
Still 2-0 ahead on 80 minutes, Osimhen and his Napoli teammates conceded three goals inside seven minutes against Empoli to go three games without a win.
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The defeat leaves Napoli in third on 67 points, five points behind leaders Inter Milan and four adrift second placed AC Milan.
Osimhen saw 90 minutes of action in the game which is his 23rd league appearance with 12 goals this season.
Napoli opened scoring in the 44th minute through Dries Mertens before Lorenzo Insigne doubled their lead on 53 minutes.
With 10 minutes left Empoli pulled a goal back thanks to Liam Henderson while Andrea Pinamonti made it 2-2 in the 83rd minute.
And in the 87th minute Pinamonti got his second and Empoli’s third to complete the comeback.
13 Comments
Napoli,the arsenal fc of Italian league. The greatest nearly men in football.msschew!
Napoli are not ready to win anything. Osimhen is fast, has athletic like abilities such as jumping for headers and is hungry, but he needs to work on his finishing and his 1v1. I remember the game against barcelona in the europa league when the team got booed off. Many times he was ahead of the squad about to score and just kept on missing, shooting in a rush when the oppositions comes and giving away turnovers like 3 times in a row. He just doesn’t show up for big games and the team napoli as a whole doesn’t show up too They had many chances to go top of the table and just keeps failing. At most Osimhen scores to tie games not to finish it. So this result was not a surprise.
What’s up, bicycle kick striker?
@Pompei,
And what’s wrong with “Bicycle Kick”? You think it is easy to do? With the way 2-3 Ghanains were closing on him and kicking Osimhen every time he gets close to the ball, how else would he have scored if not for those quick and surprising Bicycle kicks?
You are deriding him because non of the two kicks went into the net. Had one or both of them gone in, you would have been hailing him for the wonderful, spectacular goal. Osimhen need encouragement not derision on this ability. Not every striker can do Bicycle kicks in tight corners.
Is there any one in your pathetic team called black stars who can do a proper bicycle kick? Does your team even have a striker that has scored 10 goals
this season in any 5 top league in Europe? Guy shut your mouth and face your miserable team who would be thrashed at the world cup…
The pathetic team which kicked your sorry ass out of the world cup? And what did you do with all the strikers you had? My guy, you should be the one shutting your stinking mouth because they smell like lagos apapa gutter..lol
“What did you do with all the strikers you have” @Yaw you got me thinking how poor our coach is.
With plenty quality strikers at our disposal yet we couldn’t score in open play for 180 minutes it’s disgraceful,our 9 coaching consortium should hang their heads in shame.
Ghana is there for the taking but we had men who doesnt know what or how to use the players and right tactics to deploy to achieve results.
Contrary to popular opinion,i think Ghana should have a good world cup tournament if they will put up same fighting spirit and doggedness we see them display against Nigeria.
The problem is after the Nigeria game they don’t fight as hard.
Anyways,goodluck Ghana and other African representatives you all deserved your spots,Nigeria unfortunately,is cursed with bad leadership always making strange weird decisions.
Quite surprising that since Victor Osimhen insulted Victor Ikeba, his team has not won a match. Seems the God of soccer has suddenly turned their back on them. Even when they are in cruise control suddenly everything changes. They are now not of the title race and if not checked could be overtaken by Juventus and may miss top 4. Even though it doesn’t seem as his fault but it appears they have just lost their spark.
I hope they at least qualify for champions League and I also expect Victor Osimhen to apologize to Victor Ikpeba, this may bring back the grace that followed him and his team. Life is indeed spiritual.
This was embolism first win in a long time, and of course it had to be Napoli. It’s almost like Napoli deliberately avoid victories because they were in cruise control. Its clear that the whole team needs psychological help. They lack that winning mentality to see out games and grind out wins in crucial games.
Empoli*
You ask me WHAT’S WRONG WITH BICYCLE KICK?
I will tell you what’s wrong with bicycle kick.
Something is wrong with bicycle kick if it is used to waste chances that you need to go to the WORLD CUP.
Sometimes, it is best to deploy the bicycle kick in certain situations. Agreed.
But when you can control the ball and give yourself a better opportunity to score,
that is exactly what you need to do. Especially in a match where there is so much at stake!
Ikpeba and others believe Osimhen should have controlled the ball to give himself a better chance of scoring.
If Osimhen had chest-controlled that ball, for instance, Ghana defenders would have had to tackle him. That could present an opportunity to win a freekick, or even a penalty. The best forwards in the world are skilled at taking advantage of these situations. These strikers would have controlled the ball, and tried to get farther into the box –
1) while looking for a shooting opportunity, or
2) waiting for the slightest contact from the opposing defender. Immediately they feel a tackle, down they go in or around the box.
Decisions like this can decide games.
Not only Osimhen, but all our strikers need to be more resourceful with the chances that come their way. At the highest level, the chances are hard to come by. So when you manage to get one, YOU NEED TO SHAKE THE NET.
AT LEAST, MAKE THE OPPONENT’S GOALIE EARN HIS MONEY.
You ask me WHAT’S WRONG WITH BICYCLE KICK?
I will tell you what’s wrong with bicycle kick.
Something is wrong with bicycle kick if it is used to waste chances that you need to go to the WORLD CUP.
Sometimes, it is best to deploy the bicycle kick in certain situations. Agreed.
But when you can control the ball and give yourself a better opportunity to score,
that is exactly what you need to do. Especially in a match where there is so much at stake!
Ikpeba and others believe Osimhen should have controlled the ball to give himself a better chance of scoring.
If Osimhen had chest-controlled that ball, for instance, Ghana defenders would have had to tackle him. That could present an opportunity to win a freekick, or even a penalty. The best forwards in the world are skilled at taking advantage of these situations.
Decisions like this can be the difference between success and failure. And failure at this level can be very expensive.
Not only Osimhen, but all our strikers need to be more resourceful with the chances that come their way. At the highest level, the chances are hard to come by. So when you manage to get one, YOU NEED TO SHAKE THE NET.
AT LEAST, MAKE THE OPPONENT’S GOALIE EARN HIS MONEY.
Tony,
You ask me what’s wrong with bicycle kick?
A good thing can be bad at the wrong time.
Ikpeba and others believe that Osimhen should have controlled the ball, as that would have given him a better chance to score. If you disagree, direct your query to Ikpeba.
Top strikers would have been looking for 2 things in that moment, to take advantage of whichever comes first:
1) Opportunity to shoot at goal
2) Waiting for the slightest contact from a Ghana defender, so they can win a penalty.
A lesson learned. He needs to be more calm and composed in front of goal. Hopefully, he will do better next time.