Former Italy manager Arigo Sacchi acknowledged that Victor Osimhen would have made no difference in Napoli’s loss to AC Milan on Sunday night. The Partenopei were defeated 4-0 by the champions at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. Osimhen was unable to play due to a muscle injury suffered while on international duty with Nigeria. However, Sacchi, who has previously managed AC Milan, maintained that the 24-year-old’s presence would not have prevented Luciano Spalletti’s side from losing the game.
“Everyone will say: yes, but Osimhen wasn’t playing. So, let’s immediately clear up that misunderstanding: in this context, it was a Napoli side that was not very gritty, very slow and very predictable, even Osimhen would have struggled. And this explains that one player cannot solve the situation,” Sacchi wrote in his column for La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Napoli has had such a dominant season that they lead almost every Serie A stat rating. Luciano Spalletti’s men are the league’s top scorers, and they also have the finest defense, having conceded just once in the previous nine matches before losing by four goals to AC Milan yesterday. AC Milan will almost certainly lose the Scudetto this season. They are presently fourth in the table, 23 points behind the leaders, so securing Champions League football is their only domestic goal in the final weeks of the season.
The two teams are set to meet again in the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday, 12th April.
This season, Osimhen has 21 goals in 23 league games for Napoli.