Victor Osimhen was on target as Napoli thrashed Verona 5-2 on Monday in their opening match of the Serie A season.
Osimhen was among the scorers in a thumping win for Napoli, who have had a tricky summer after losing stalwarts Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens.
However, Luciano Spalletti’s team were on top form at the Stadio Bentegodi, with goals from their Nigerian forward, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Piotr Zielinski, Stanislav Lobotka and Matteo Politano ensuring they got off to a perfect start.
Verona battled and were level early in the second half through Kevin Lasagna and Thomas Henry, but shorn of last season’s stars Giovanni Simeone — on his way to Napoli on loan — and Gianluca Caprari, there was little Gabriele Cioffi’s side could do under a second-half onslaught.
“I think it’s important to start well because we lost some key players, real leaders in the team. And of course it is left to us to step up,” said Osimhen, who was not asked by DAZN about the monkey chants directed at him.
“I’m not the sort of player to set (scoring) targets… the team comes before my individual ambitions.”
Napoli were on top from the first minute but were hit with a sucker punch just before the half-hour mark when, after Alex Meret tipped over Martin Hongla’s shot, Lasagna tapped home Koray Gunter’s flick-on of the subsequent corner.
But Napoli were deservedly level eight minutes later through new boy Kvaratskhelia, who marked an impressive debut by meeting Hirving Lozano’s cross with a perfect header past Lorenzo Montipo.
