Napoli registered a two goal win away to Eintracht Frankfurt in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 on Wednesday at the Deutsche Bank Park.
The game kicked off on a high pace with both teams trying to get an early lead but its the hosts who created the first clear cut chance.
Randal Kolo Muani picked up a pass with excellent ball control ,then lifted the ball over the shoulder of his marker; turned before leaving him static. He then whipped in a low effort that went wide across the goal posts.
Napoli missed two chances from Khvicha Kvatatskhelia who was denied by the goal keeper Kevin Trapp and Hirving Lozano whose effort deflected off the wood work.
In the 36th minute, Napoli got a penalty following a foul on Victor Osimhen when Frankfurt’s Aurelio kicked him in an attempt to clear the ball inside the box.
Kvatatskhelia missed the resultant penalty but three minutes later ,Osimhen was on the mark when he connected a cross from the right by Mexican Lozano to score his 10th goal in his last nine games .
The Nigerian foward tapped in another goal in the 40th minute, but was ruled out for offside by the VAR and the first half ended 1-0.
Napoli created more chances but were kept at bay by Trapp. The hosts had their influential attacker Muani sent off for a nasty challenge on Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa in the 58th minute.
The visitors capitalized on their numerical advantage to double the lead in the 65th minute by captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s strike following a brilliant back heel from Kvatatskhelia into the path of the skipper whose well executed finish at the far Post made it 2-0.
The hosts were saved from further embarrassment by Trapp as Napoli continued to attack relentlessly. 2-0 the game ended and Simone Inzaghi’s men just did enough to carry the two goal advantage into the second leg.
