Napoli's Victor Osimhen celebrates scoring their third goal during the Serie A match against Bologna at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples, Italy, on October 16, 2022. REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
Milan: Victor Osimhen continued his comeback from injury with his second goal in as many matches to help free-scoring Napoli beat Bologna 3-2 and move back to the top of Serie A on Sunday.
Napoli had to come from behind, and goals from Juan Jesus and Hirving Lozano either side of the break appeared to have turned the match around. But Musa Barrow leveled for Bologna before Osimhen scored what was to prove the winner.
Napoli moved two points clear of second-place Atalanta at the top of the table. Lazio and Udinese are five points below Napoli after playing out a 0-0 draw. Defending champion AC Milan can move into third with a win at lowly Hellas Verona later.
Napoli was brimming with confidence after it qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League midweek. It had scored 14 goals in its past three matches in all competitions.
But it was Bologna which took the lead four minutes before the interval when Andrea Cambiaso ran onto a through ball and pulled it back for Joshua Zirkzee to drill into the back of the net.
Napoli leveled on the stroke of halftime as a corner hit Bologna defender Gary Medel on the shin and went into the path of Jesus to fire the ball home.
Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti brought on Lozano and Osimhen at the break and they were to have an immediate impact.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia cut inside the area from the left and bamboozled his way past two players before seeing his shot parried by Łukasz Skorupski. Osimhen couldn’t get on the rebound but Lozano did with a shot from a tight angle.
However, Napoli’s lead only lasted two minutes before goalkeeper Alex Meret misjudged Barrow’s shot and allowed it to squirm out of his hands.
Kvaratskhelia set up the winner in the 69th with a through ball for Osimhen to run onto and fire past Skorupski.
