Napoli centre-forward was on an extended run without finding the back of the net and nearly matched an undesirable record before Sunday’s headed strike.
Raffaele Palladino’s men stunned last year’s Scudetto winners through Milan Djuric’s ninth-minute header, but Francesco Calzona’s troops responded emphatically after the break.
Osimhen rose higher than the Monza backline to level 10 minutes after the interlude before astonishing quick-fire goals from Matteo Politano and Piotr Zielinski in minutes 57 and 61 made it 3-1.
Even though Andrea Colpani notched an impressively curled effort to halve the Biancorossi deficit a minute after Zielinski scored, Osimhen was involved in the move preceding Giacomo Raspadori’s strike with 22 minutes remaining.
Before the game, it was known that Osimhen had failed to find the net in three Serie A games since scoring a hat-trick in the Partenopei’s 6-1 victory over Sassuolo at the backend of February.
That took his run without scoring to three matches before Sunday’s visit to Monza having fired blanks against Juventus, Torino and Atalanta, with the 2023 Serie A champions only defeating the Old Lady.
It was revealed before the game that another league appearance without scoring would take the Super Eagles forward to four fixtures in the competition without a goal, only the fourth time such has happened since signing for Napoli in 2020.
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The recent extended drought of four consecutive games or more came between October 2021 and January 2022 — a six-match sequence without hitting the back of the net for the Naples outfit. Satisfyingly, Osimhen does not have to worry about matching his lengthiest wait for a goal in Serie A after ending that with a typical leap and finish against Monza.
Despite losing heavily to Atalanta in the previous gameweek, La Dea’s defeat to Cagliari on Sunday means Napoli are two points adrift of the Bergamo outfit with seven rounds to go in the 2023-24 season.
With Osimhen and his colleagues out of the Coppa Italia and continental competition, they aim to capitalise on Atalanta and Roma’s Europa League involvement, keen to end sixth or fifth in the standings, even if Gian Piero Gasperini’s men have an outstanding game against Fiorentina.
