Victor Osimhen scored twice and provided an assist to help Napoli secure a 4-1 victory over Spezia in Saturday’s Serie A game at Stadio Alberto Picco.
The centre-forward is gradually showing why the Parthenopeans paid a huge sum to secure his signature last summer from Lille.
Osimhen was afforded his 21st league appearance for Gennaro Gattuso’s men and utilized the opportunity to continue his impressive performances.
After scoring in each of his previous three games, the attacker again shone against the Little Eagles, bagging his first brace for the Parthenopeans in a competitive game.
His effort helped Napoli to return to winning ways after playing out a draw in their last league outing against Cagliari.
The Parthenopeans hit the ground running in Saturday's encounter with Osimhen spearheading the attack, and he came close to opening the scoring as early as the 12th minute when he fired a fine shot but narrowly missed the target.
Three minutes later, Napoli got the opener when Piotr Zielinski unleashed his effort past goalkeeper Ivan Provedel.
Osimhen doubled the lead in the 23rd minute, hitting a fine shot into the back of the net from close range after benefitting from Zielinski’s assist.
The Nigeria international got his second in the encounter moments before the end of the first half with a well-struck effort after he was set up by Lorenzo Insigne.
After the restart, Spezia made every effort to try and come back into the game with Roberto Piccoli reducing the deficit in the 64th minute.
Hirving Lozano, however, sealed the victory for the Parthenopeans in the 79th minute after an assist from Osimhen.
The victory moved Gattuso’s men to the second spot on the league table after gathering 70 points from 35 games.
Osimhen featured for 83 minutes before he was replaced by Andrea Petagna and will hope to help his side continue in winning ways when they take on Udinese in their next league game on May 11.
The Super Eagles attacker has now scored 10 goals and provided three assists in 27 appearances across all competitions this season.