Nigerians to watch: Pressure on Osimhen as Napoli face Juventus in huge Serie A clash

The last two weeks have been all about international football for Super Eagles stars, but club football is back again his weekend, with the focus on Europe’s domestic leagues

It was a successful international break for the players, kicking off their World Cup qualifying campaign with wins against Liberia and Cape Verde.

However, the attention now shifts back to club football, with a host of Nigerian stars set to be involved in Europe’s domestic leagues this weekend.

Soccernet takes a look at some of the players to look out for.

There’s no better place to start than the Italian Serie A. One player to look out for this weekend is none other than Victor Osimhen.

It has not been a good start for the 22-year-old striker after he was sent off in Napoli’s opening game of the campaign against Venezia.

The striker received a straight red card in the 23rd minute for shoving Daan Heymans. As a result, he was handed a two-match ban.

Osimhen had been impressive in pre-season games, but the red card was not the ideal way to start the new campaign, given the way last season turned out.

However, luckily for him, Napoli’s appeal to reduce the ban to one-game was successful, meaning he’s free to face Juventus this weekend, having missed the team’s 2-1 win against Genoa.

The game against Juventus at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium is a big one, but it offers Osimhen an opportunity to get his season started.

He won’t be short of confidence, having scored in Nigeria’s 2-1 win against Cape Verde. But the pressure will be on him, and it’s time he starts delivering.

Other games involving Nigerians in the Serie A will see Ola Aina come up against Simy Nwankwo and Joel Obi when Torino host Salernitana.

Fresh off from an impressive debut for the Super Eagles, Kingsley Michael will hope to inspire Bologna to victory when they welcome Hellas Verona.

Meanwhile, Tyronne Ebuehi will hope to put the disappointing false-positive coronavirus test behind him when Venezia travel to Empoli.

Meanwhile, in the Premier League, all eyes will be on Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi as Leicester City welcome Manchester City to the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Both teams met in the season’s curtain-raiser, the Community Shield. Iheanacho was the hero that day as his penalty helped the Foxes secure a 1-0 win against his former side.

Also, Frank Onyeka will hope to return to Brentford’s team when they take on Brighton on Saturday. Onyeka tested positive for coronavirus two weeks ago, which ruled him out of Nigeria’s engagements.

However, he’s back training and should be in the Bees lineup. Watford will hope their Nigerian trio of Oghenekaro Etebo, William Troost-Ekong and Emmanuel Dennis can help them to a second win in the league when they take on Wolves at Vicarage Road.

In Ligue 1, Lorient’s goalscoring burden will be on Terem Moffi when they welcome champions Lille to Stade du Moustoir. Moffi has one goal and one assist in four games this season.

Another Nigerian player to watch out for is Moses Simon, who will hope to continue his impressive start to the new season when Nantes host Nice on Sunday.

Samuel Kalu should also be in action for Bordeaux, who take on Lens.

In Germany, the focus will be on Taiwo Awoniyi, who will hope to make it four in four Bundesliga games when Union Berlin take on Augsburg.