Osimhen nets again as Napoli edge Udinese to maintain top spot

Victor Osimhen continued his stunning goalscoring form for Napoli as they claimed a 3-2 win over Udinese in their Serie A encounter. The league leaders held off a late onslaught from Udinese to extend their lead atop the standings.

Having scored six goals in his last five games for the club, Osimhen led the line again in the match against Udinese. The in-form striker wasted no time in opening the scoring as he headed home from close range after a cross from Eljif Elmas in the 15th minute of the match.

The league leaders doubled their advantage through Piotr Zielinski shortly after the half-hour mark after he was played in by Hirving Lozano. Osimhen showed great strength and physicality to hold off a defender before stylishly flicking the ball to Lozano, who laid off the ball to Zielinski to curl home from inside the box.

Napoli scored another in the 58th minute through Elmas, who showed brilliant composure to leave a defender on the seat of his pants after receiving a pass from Andre Frank Zambo-Anguissa before slotting his effort past the goalkeeper.

Udinese pulled one back in the 79th minute through Macedonia’s Ilija Nestorovski. The forward fired home after substitute Isaac Success sent the ball his way using his chest. Three minutes later, they scored a second through Lazar Samardzic, who fired an effort from range into the back of the net to set up a grandstand finish.

Napoli held on to claim the win and are now only the second team after Juventus in 1949, 2005, 2013 and 2018 in Serie A history to win 13 of their first 15 matches in a season. Osimhen is the league’s leading marksman with nine goals in 11 league matches.