UCL: Osimhen secures vital point for Napoli against Barcelona

Vctor Osimhen stole the spotlight as Napoli salvaged a 1-1 draw against Barcelona in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League (UCL) round of 16 at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Wednesday.

Victor Osimhen who started all of Nigeria’s games in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) was given a starting role on his return to the matchday squad by Napoli’s new manager Francesco Calzona, who the club’s president Aurelio De Laurentiis admitted will have a difficult game to oversee, having been appointed about 24 hours before the game.

True to this, the first half of the game was a difficult one for Napoli, as they were run over by 16-year-old Lamine Yamal, the youngest player ever to feature in a Champions League knockout stage game.

Yamal registered two shots target, while the Partenopei, for the first time in their Champions League history failed to register a shot.

Having been denied of a tap-in by Alex Meret in the first half, Robert Lewandowski put Barcelona ahead about 15 minutes into the second half from Pedri’s pass.

Despite being starved of service for most of the match, Osimhen once again displayed while he’s the reigning African Player of the Year, as the 25-year-old displayed strength to turn Inigo Martinez inside the box to fire in Napoli’s equalizer with his last kick of the game before he was substituted off for Giovanni Simeone.

Napoli created more chances after Osimhen’s goal, but they couldn’t do enough to find a winner, as the game ended in a stalemate to be decided in the second leg at Barcelona’s Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys on March 12.