Storm over! as Osimhen scores first goal in four months for Napoli

Lorenzo Insigne’s brace and a Victor Osimhen counter got Napoli back on track, despite some real scares in the 3-1 win over Bologna.

Kalidou Koulibaly returned from suspension, with Osimhen back on the bench after he was knocked unconscious a couple of weeks ago, but Hirving Lozano, Andrea Petagna and Tiemoue Bakayoko missed out. The Rossoblu made the trip without Aaron Hickey, Mitchell Dijks, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Andri Baldursson, Federico Santander, Paolo Faragò and suspended Jerdy Schouten.

There was a minute’s silence and Bologna wore black armbands following the death of Mirko Pavinato, who was captain of their Scudetto-winning side in 1964.

Fabian Ruiz dribbled into the box and waited too long before taking the shot, allowing Lorenzo De Silvestri to block. He did better for the goal soon after, passing for Piotr Zielinski’s back-heel flick, which laid it on a silver platter for Lorenzo Insigne to sweep into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

Bologna hit back, Andreas Skov Olsen’s strike beating David Ospina to thump the base of the far post on 19 minutes. At that same moment, Faouzi Ghoulam pulled up with a suspected thigh strain and had to be replaced.

Insigne almost scored a carbon copy of his first goal, but this time Lukasz Skorupski got his fingertips to push it round the upright.

read also:Osimhen has been ‘unlucky’ at Napoli, says Rohr

Ospina was also called into action, parrying the Rodrigo Palacio header from close range on De Silvestri’s cross.

Palacio had the ball in the net on the stroke of half-time, but he had wandered offside just before taking the powerful finish from the edge of the area on Andrea Poli’s through ball.

Ospina got away with a howler straight after the restart, as he seemingly kicked the ball at Palacio on the edge of the area, it ricocheted into the net, but the goal was disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper. That was a contentious decision, as it could be argued Ospina had released the ball.

Osimhen came on and allowed Napoli to try some route one football, taking on Ibrahima Mbaye and Danilo by himself, as Bologna were increasingly pinning Napoli back.

This tactic worked wonderfully for the second goal, as Napoli countered from their own penalty area, Zielinski sent Osimhen running from midfield, he easily out-sprinted Danilo and fired in.

There was almost a repeat moments later, but this time Insigne rolled across for Osimhen to fire wide in arguably a much easier chance than the goal.

Bologna did get a goal back when Diego Demme was caught napping by Palacio, Skov Olsen knocking back the cross for Roberto Soriano to drill home from the edge of the area.

Nico Domniguez also curled just wide, but mere seconds after Bologna made a triple substitution, they conceded a third. Osimhen flicked on a long ball, De Silvestri attempted to clear, but it ricocheted off Insigne, so the Napoli captain sprinted forward to drill into the bottom corner.

It was end-to-end stuff, Politano running from his own half to sting Skorupski’s gloves, then Ospina almost propelled back into his own net by a Musa Barrow free kick from a tight angle.