Nigeria international Victor Osimhem will lead Napoli\u2019s attack against Salernitana in a Serie fixture on Saturday as the Partenopei seek a quick response to their Coppa Italia midweek ouster against Cremonese, a side yet to win a match in Serie A.<\/p>\n
The Partenopei were knocked out of the Coppa Italia Round of 16 on Tuesday, losing on penalties against Davide Ballardini\u2019s Cremonese, the only team with no victories in Serie A this season.<\/span><\/p>\n This comes after Napoli produced a sensational performance to thrash Juventus and move nine points clear in their bid for a first Serie A title since 1990.<\/span><\/p>\n Nigerian striker Osimhen scored twice with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Amir Rrahmani and Elif Elmas also on target.<\/span><\/p>\n Osimhen opened the scoring for Napoli and then provided the pass for Kvaratskhelia to double their lead, but Di Maria hit back before the break.<\/span><\/p>\n The 24-year-old Nigerian forward has formed a key part of Luciano Spalletti\u2019s team and has continued to impress with his performances.<\/span><\/p>\n The former Lille star has scored 12 goals and provided four assists in 14 Serie A appearances this season and is on the verge of delivering the first title for the Parthenopeans since 1990.<\/span><\/p>\n Also, the Nigerian forward believes that Serie A leaders have a\u00a0 very good chance of winning the Scudetto this season.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI always say we have a great squad with quality players and of course, we cannot shy away from the quality players Juventus possess. It was a good fight, I am glad we came out on top and we must continue like this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe road is too long, we must continue carrying out the coach\u2019s instructions and I think at the end of the season we have a good chance,\u201d Osimhen said after Napoli dispatched Juventus last weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, the former Lille star will be spearheading Spalletti\u2019s attack against Serie A strugglers Salernitana which lost 8-2 to Atalanta to further extend its lead on the Serie A table.<\/span><\/p>\n Napoli are winter champions and lead the league by nine points a win at Stadio Arechi on Saturday will further boost their scudetto chances.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Spalletti has revealed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will miss tomorrow\u2019s derby against Salernitana.<\/span><\/p>\n The Georgia international was ruled out of Napoli\u2019s Coppa Italia match against Cremonese due to flu and has not yet recovered.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe won\u2019t travel with the team, he has a fever and the doctor had to give him medicines for his symptoms,\u201d Spalletti said at a press conference on Friday. Spalletti said in his pre-match comment.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nigeria international Victor Osimhem will lead Napoli\u2019s attack against Salernitana in a Serie fixture on Saturday as the Partenopei seek a quick response to their Coppa Italia midweek ouster against Cremonese, a side yet to win a match in Serie A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6194,6193,6192],"class_list":["post-11242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-kvaratskhelia","tag-naples","tag-osimhen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11243,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11242\/revisions\/11243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}