Victor Osimhen managed to salvage a late point for Napoli in their match against Cagliari this evening, but it was David Ospina who put the Partenopei in that position to begin with.
The 33-year-old Colombian goalkeeper made a disastrous mistake in the 58th minute of the match at the Unipol Domus tonight, allowing Gastón Pereiro to score the opener. He really should have done better to stop the shot, considering it was a fairly speculative attempt from outside the penalty area.
The goal put Napoli in a really tough position; the Partenopei had been on the back foot for the majority of the match and they knew that they’d need to grind out a result, but going 1-0 down meant possibly exposing themselves to counter attacks as they pushed for an equaliser.
Ospina did follow up on his mistake with a number of strong saves throughout the rest of the match, but his mistake could still prove costly in Napoli’s fight for the league title this season.
A win against Cagliari would have taken them to the top of the table, tied on points with Milan, but the draw means that they remain third, tied on points with Inter instead.
As the season enters the decisive stages, results like this one tonight are the ones that can make the difference in a neck and neck title race, so only time will tell just how costly Ospina’s error was.
He’s always likely to make these type of mistakes. Meret’s no genius either, but surely he can’t be worse.
Napoli may need a new keeper in the summer.
@Ferban do you actually watch a majority of the games? Ospina rarely makes this type of mistake. He has the most clean sheets in Serie A, much of which is thanks to Koulibaly, but he is still far better than Meret.
I agree if they could get a solid young goal keeper (maybe steal Andre Onana from Inter?) this summer that would be best case scenario. Knowing ADL, I don’t have much hope that he would be willing to spend the money to get someone like that. Either way I think Napoli can easily win the league with Ospina if they stay healthy and start their best players in must win games instead of bringing them in during the 66′ down 1-0 to a team in 18th.
@Napoli 15 – If Fabian and Osimhen just came in in the last 20 min is just because they were not fit enough to play from beginning ….. they were still recovering from previous injuries.
@elio No player is 100% fit this far into the season. They were fit enough to play, Spalletti said he wanted to rest them for Barcelona. I am all for resting the players when they can, but that was a must win game and Insigne, Politano, Lozano, Anguissa, and Lobotka were already out. Start Osimhen and Ruiz and go up 1-0 or 2-0 in the first half then bring the backups in. Cagliari is no match for the Napoli starters and the game should have been over in the first 40′.