Napoli vs Eintracht Frankfurt – Football Match Report – March 15, 2023

Napoli striker Victor Osimhen struck both sides of the break to lead the Italians to a comfortable 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt and their first Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.

The 24-year-old Nigeria international, who also scored in the 2-0 win against Eintracht in Germany, headed in in first-half added time.

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Osimhen scored his 23rd goal in 28 games in all competitions this season when he tapped in in the 53rd minute after a quick four-pass Napoli combination before Piotr Zielinski converted a penalty to secure a 5-0 aggregate win .

Napoli are the third Italian team to reach the quarter-finals after Inter and AC Milan.

“It wasn’t easy but we scored a historic goal for Napoli,” said coach Luciano Spalletti. “I hope we can now enjoy it with the whole team and together with the fans.”

“It’s important to have the attitude we had tonight. We didn’t have a lot of quality at the beginning but we did well and didn’t concede a goal.”

“Osimhen is a very strong footballer. He can get behind defenders and now he’s playing more with the team and we’re happy.”

Fighting broke out in the Italian city ahead of the game as fans set fire to a police car and threw stones at buses and police officers.

Italian authorities had banned German fans from attending the game for fear of possible violence, but some Eintracht supporters traveled to Italy anyway.

It was peaceful at the Diego Maradona Stadium and the hosts were in control from the start.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia came into the box with a confused run in the 19th minute and the Georgian was thwarted again in the 43rd minute when keeper Kevin Trapp missed the winger’s close shot.

Osimhen opened the scoring in first-half injury time after having far too much space in the box to rise high and head in on a measured Matteo Politano cross.

That meant Europa League champions Frankfurt needed three goals but struggled against a well-trained Napoli defense that lacked their two top strikers – the suspended Randal Kolo Muani and the injured Jesper Lindstrom.

They were also under pressure from Napoli’s relentless pressing game and it was Osimhen who scored again. He scored from close range to end any hopes of a German comeback and became the first Napoli player to score in both games of a Champions League knockout game.

“We managed to keep up with them for parts of the game,” said Frankfurt captain Sebastian Rode. “But we lost the ball in front of the goals and that broke us.

The Serie A leaders capped off an excellent two-legged performance with a Zielinski penalty after the Pole was brought down in the penalty area.