Victory for one Victor, defeat for the other, contrasting Saturday for Osimhen and Boniface

Saturday, September 2, 2023, was bittersweet for Nigerian football fans as the darling of millions Victor Osimhen not only failed to score, his club, Napoli, the defending champion of the Italian league lost to Lazio at home.

Elsewhere another Victor, this time Victor Boniface scored twice as five-star Leverkusen crushed Darmstadt.

Boniface, a new signing scored twice for the second consecutive week as Bayer Leverkusen blew Darmstadt 98 away 5-1 on Saturday to make it three wins out of three league games for a perfect Bundesliga start.

The 22-year-old Nigerian, who struck twice in last week's win over Borussia Moenchengladbach while also netting in the German Cup once, joined a month ago from Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium but has hit the ground running.

Boniface opened his account with a superb solo run and chipped in his finish in the 21st minute after driving past three defenders.

Darmstadt levelled through Oscar Vilhelmsson's close-range header but Xabi Alonso's team went back in front four minutes after the restart through Exequiel Palacios.

Boniface then bagged his second goal of the afternoon, slipping into the box and flicking the ball past the keeper from a tight angle after a quick passing move.

Jonas Hofmann's 20-metre drive made it 4-1, killing off any chances of a Darmstadt comeback before substitute Adam Hlozek slid in to add another and keep his team on a maximum of

nine points from three matches.

In Italy, Napoli manager Rudi Garica’s dream start to his touchline career at Napoli came to a stuttering end on Saturday night as Lazio stunned the Serie A champions in their backyard. Piotr Zielinski’s goal just after the half-hour mark proved a consolation strike for Partenopei as Maurizio Sarri’s side triumphed 2-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

Luis Alberto’s mesmerizing backheel goal to open the scoring will be one of the hottest topics in Italy after Saturday night. But Lazio’s newcomer Daichi Kamada will grab the headlines at least during the weekend after breaking his Serie A duck to topple Napoli against the odds.

After securing a brace of two-goal margin wins over Frosinone and Sassuolo, Napoli looked in pole position to take advantage of Lazio’s dismal form at the beginning of the 2023/24 season. But despite losing to Lecce and Genoa, Sarri’s men found the courage and inspiration to defy expectations in Naples.

Faced with his first failure as the Napoli manager, Garcia refused to give Lazio much credit for upsetting the Maradona Stadium. However, he also urged his Napoli players not to give up even when things don’t go their way.

“We deserved to be ahead at halftime because we played really well at the start and did not get the goal we deserved,” Garcia told DAZN.

Truth be told, the Napoli boss has a point, considering his men controlled proceedings for most of the opening 45 minutes.

“On almost Lazio’s only real foray into our half, they scored, so had a 100 percent efficiency rate. We equalised, but in the second half were far less effective in our passing and creating chances,” he continued.

Napoli lost confidence after falling behind, letting Lazio score two more goals, both of which were ruled out by VAR. Garcia admitted his lads ran out of steam after the break, insisting they shouldn’t back off when they cannot win.

“Considering the second half, Lazio deserved the win, but looking at the match as a whole, I think a draw would’ve been better. The lads must learn that when we cannot win, we must at least not lose.”