Osimhen On A Mission With Nigeria At Africa Cup Of Nations 2023

It is no longer news that many of the biggest stars at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations have already been eliminated before the quarter-finals, but the continent’s reigning player of the year Victor Osimhen is still standing as he aims to lead Nigeria to the title.

The 25-year-old Napoli striker may have been the obvious bet to finish as the tournament’s top scorer, having netted 10 times in qualifying, twice as many goals as the next most prolific marksmen.

Nevertheless, he has found the net just once going into Friday’s last-eight tie against outsiders Angola in Abidjan. However, that does not tell anything like the whole story of the masked forward’s AFCON so far.

It will be recalled that Osimhen scored in Nigeria’s first match in Ivory Coast, which ended in an underwhelming 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea.

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He won the penalty which captain William Troost-Ekong scored in the 1-0 victory over Ivory Coast, and then played all 90 minutes of the final group game against Guinea-Bissau when he could well have been rested.

Osimhen then turned in an awe-inspiring performance in the 2-0 last-16 win over the Super Eagles’ old rivals Cameroon, harassing and pressing the opposition defence all evening and setting up the opening goal.

“He didn’t score but he had a fantastic game. It is not easy to stop that guy! Ask the defenders of the opposition how they suffered,” said Nigeria’s charismatic coach, Jose Peseiro.