Osimhen responds to Mourinho. African footballers. Victor Osimhen delivered a brilliant performance for Galatasaray in their 3-1 victory over Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce, giving a strong response to Mourinho after the former Chelsea boss tried his usual mind games.
Osimhen, who was left out of the midweek match against Rizespor, returned to the starting lineup for the big clash, despite spending much of the summer training alone while his transfer from Napoli was being worked out. His limited playtime didn’t stop him from making a big impact in the game.
His key moment came in the 28th minute when he set up new teammate Dries Mertens to put Galatasaray two goals ahead. This was his second assist in just two games for his new club.
The 25-year-old Nigerian had four shots on goal, one of which was on target. He was especially effective at finding space around the edge of the Fenerbahce box and came close to scoring twice on the counterattack.
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Chelsea are keeping a close eye on Osimhen and will have noted his performance, with a possible January transfer on the cards due to a break clause in his loan deal.
Mourinho raises the pressure
There was a lot of attention on Victor Osimhen leading up to the match, not only because of his high profile. Before the big derby, Mourinho added some pressure on the Nigerian striker by claiming that Osimhen tends to dive.
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“I don’t have any issues with Victor,” Mourinho, who previously coached Roma before joining Fenerbahce, told HT Spor. “In fact, we have a very good relationship. But every time I face him, I tell him I don’t like the way he acts. He dives too much.
“I told him, ‘You and Mohamed Salah are the two best African players right now. In the past, there were greats like Didier Drogba, Samuel Eto’o, and George Weah. You can’t act like this. You dive too much. That’s my issue with him.'”
Osimhen won two fouls during the game, but the most important thing for him was that Galatasaray took all three points, putting them five points ahead of Fenerbahce in the Super Lig.