Osimhen stars as Napoli edge closer to Scudetto with historic win over Juventus
Late Raspadori winner moves Partenopei within three points of title
Victor Osimhen played an important role for Napoli in their 1-0 win over Juventus at the Allianz Stadium in Turin. The Partenopei handed Juventus a third successive Serie A defeat for the first time since March 2011, with Giacomo Raspadori scoring the decisive goal.
Coming off the back of the decision to rescind their 15-point deduction, the mood was upbeat in Juventus as they faced a Napoli side that has lost a lot of steam in recent weeks with two draws and two defeats in their last four matches. The Luciano Spalletti-tutored side had claimed a huge win over Juventus in the reverse fixture earlier in the season.
Both sides struggled to cause problems for each other in the opening half, with both Wojciech Szczesny and Alex Meret largely underworked in the first 45 minutes.
The match came to life in the second half, with Osimhen squandering three chances to score in the space of four minutes. First, the striker saw an effort deflected wide from inside the box before seeing his header from the resulting corner easily clutched by Szczesny. The striker then curled an effort just over as the match heated up.
Juventus thought they had gone in front twice- first through Angel Di Maria, who finished off a pass from Manuel Locatelli, and then through Dusan Vlahovic, who fired home a low cross from Federico Chiesa. Both efforts were ruled out, the first by the VAR for an offside, and the second for the ball going out of play before Chiesa could get his cross in.
With the 90 minutes completed, Napoli finally found a breakthrough from the boot of Raspadori. The Italian forward was on hand to volley home a cross from Eljif Elmas with three of six added minutes played.
Napoli held on to claim a famous win over Juventus and complete the double over them for the fourth time in their history and the first time since the 2009/10 season. They now have a 17-point cushion over second-placed Lazio and need only one more win to secure the title, their third in history.
