Napoli beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 on Wednesday to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in its history — and making it three Italian teams in the final eight. (More Football News)
Victor Osimhen continued his 🐲fine scoring record with a goal in each half and Pꦬiotr Zieliński converted a penalty in the second half as Napoli advanced 5-0 on aggregate.
Osimhen took his tally to 23 goals this season.
“It’s amazing to make history with this win, 𒁃I’m happy to score two goals,” the Nigeria international said. “We want to keep on going like this, it’s beautiful to advance in this competition.
“I think I did a great game. The whole team did a great match against a very🦋 good team. We want to go on like this.”
It is the first time since 2006 that three Italian teams have progressed to the quarterfinals of Europe’s🌱 premier club competition.
But Osimhen believes Napoli 𒈔could stun everyone💫 and go all the way.
“We keep on dreaming, we have the squad to do so,” he said when asked if Napoli could win the Champions Leagu꧟e.
“We ꧑are on the right path, with a great coach. We’ll see what the future holds for us, I think we have a gooꦛd chance.”
There are no further restrictions on teams from the same country fa𝓰cing each other so Napoli could be pitted against Inter Milan or AC Milan when the ꧑draw is made on Friday. The other teams in the final eight are Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid.
Real Madriꦇd beat Liverpool 1-0 in Wednesday’s other match to advance 6-2 on aggregate.
Napoli was brimming with confidence heading into💧 the match at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona as it had a 2-0 lead from the first leg in Germany and appears to be a lock for the Se💛rie A title.
There was trouble in Naples during the day as around 600 Frankfurt fans descended o𓆏n the city, despite not being allowed into the match, bu𝓰t there didn’t appear to be any more incidents at the stadium.
Napoli pressed hard for the gꦡoal that would all but seal its place in th💙e quarterfinals and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who has been a revelation this season, had a couple of chances in the first half but Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp kept his team in the match.
The deadlock was broken in first-half stoppage time when Stanislav Lobotka gathered a loose ball and sent it through to Matteo Polita🌺no, who whipped in a cross from the right for a towering header by Osimhen.
Osimhen — who also scored in the first leg — doubled his tally on the night, eight minutes after the break, as he tappedꦫ in a cross from Giovanni Di Lorenzo, following goo𒁏d work by Kvaratskhelia in the buildup.
And Napoli was out of sight in the 64th when Zieli🐲ński was tripped by Djibril Sow and the midfielder dusted himself down to drill the resulting penalty down the middle.
