Napoli's Osimhen is 'phenomenal' - Cagliari's Mazzarri showers praise on striker

Cagliari coach Walter Mazzarri has showered praise on striker Victor Osimhen after his latest display enabled Napoli to win 2-0 in their Serie A fixture on Sunday.

The 22-year-old Nigeria international continued with his goalscoring form in the top-flight after he put his side ahead in the 11th minute before Lorenzo Insigne wrapped up the score with a 57th-minute penalty at Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

Osimhen, who had scored a brace against Sampdoria on Thursday, later received a standing ovation as he was substituted in the 77th minute.

His latest display caught the eyes of the opposite coach, who described him as phenomenal and dangerous when with the ball and enough space.

"Osimhen is phenomenal because he runs alone at five players and gets through. If you look at genuine scoring opportunities, compared to the number Napoli created lately, I didn't see that many," Mazzarri told DAZN as quoted by Football Italia.

"We intentionally kept a deep defensive line, because if we pushed higher like the other teams, we'd concede four or five like they did with Osimhen able to run into space. Obviously, Napoli had more possession and attacked more, but this was an intentional approach."

The Sardinians manager has further described Napoli as the best team in Serie A at the moment.

"Let us not forget we were facing the best team in Serie A right now, in an extraordinary period of form who put four or five goals past everyone lately," Mazzarri continued.

"If we take that into account, then Cagliari put in a splendid performance this evening. We tried to attack in the first half and created some chances, but we made an error on the marking, otherwise, the first half could easily have ended 0-0.

"We were in control, waiting for the final push, but made a naïve mistake with the penalty and that knocked the wind out of our sails. I think Cagliari were solid, which we weren't three days ago, so it was more or less the same performance against Lazio, except for the counter-attacks.

"We were up against champions like Kalidou Koulibaly who won't allow you anything.

"I saw a far more solid team compared to Wednesday, when we really were terrible against Empoli, and have to consider Cagliari at this point cannot compare to Napoli. If we get some energy back, I think we can have our say from the next match, but we are on the right track."

The win helped Napoli to cement top spot in the 20-team league table with 18 points from six matches and they are still unbeaten in this campaign.