Victor Osimhen scored twice for Italian champions Napoli who survived an early scare in their Serie A title defence thrashing newly-promoted Frosinone 3-1 on Saturday.
The brace took his tally for the club to 61 with 14 assists in 102 club appearances.
The Naples side had a horror start when they conceded a penalty inside five minutes after Jens Cajuste tripped Jaime Báez when attempting to clear the ball and Abdou Harroui stepped up to convert the spot kick to give Frosinone – who won the second-division Serie B title last season – a 1-0 lead against the champions.
Napoli were shell-shocked but they quickly recovered and equalised in the 24th minute when Matteo Politano pulled the trigger from the edge of the box to beat the keeper.
However, Osimhen, last season’s top scorer, ensured his side went in ahead at the break when he received the ball after a run from Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and unleashed a piledriver from an angle that grazed the underside of the crossbar on its way in.
The Nigerian striker made it 3-1 for Napoli when he broke the offside trap in the 79th minute and, with just the goalkeeper to beat, the Nigerian striker fired a low shot to find the back of the net as Garcia’s side sealed all three points.
At Craven Cottage, Calvin Bassey came on for Andreas Pereira in the 67th minute for his English Premier League (EPL) home debut as the Lilywhites suffered a 0-3 to Brentford, who had another Nigerian international, Frank Onyeka on the substitute’s bench for the entire duration of the game.
In the Bundesliga, Victor Boniface made an assist on his Bayer Leverkusen debut as the Black and Reds kicked off their German topflight campaign with a 3-2 win over RB Leipzig.
Bassey cleverly teed up Jeremie Frimpong to tap in from close range in the 24th minute.
Boniface was close to scoring in the 38th minute after he met Jonas Hofmann’s cross with a header that went too close to Janis Blaswich to cause the last line of the Leipzig defence any problems.
He was replaced in the 89th minute of the encounter.
In Scotland, Cyriel Dessers scored his second goal of the season for Glasgow Rangers and set up Danilo for the winner as the Gers advanced to the quarter-final of the Viaplay Cup for an eighth straight season with a 2-1 home win over Greenock Morton on Saturday.
Dessers’ scored from the spot in the 60th minute to make up for conceding a penalty after his challenge on Kick Broadfoot from a corner was given as a penalty after VAR stepped in.
Grant Gillespie converted the resultant spot-kick.
After the game, Rangers coach Michael Beale said Desser’s impact in the game showed he is on the right path.
“Cyriel (Dessers) scored and so did Danilo so on paper they’re moving in the right direction.”
In Spain, Umar Sadiq made his second La Liga substitute appearance for Real Sociedad who played a 1-1 draw with Celta Vigo. Since his return from a long injury layoff, the Nigerian has totalled 42 minutes of action.
In the English Championship, Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi were handed starting roles for Leicester City who maintained their perfect start to the season in dramatic fashion following a 2-1 win at home to Cardiff City.
Wanya Marcal-Madivadua fired the dominant hosts into a first-half lead with an emphatic first-time finish. But against the run of play, Aaron Ramsey equalised before Cesare Casadei came off the bench to score an injury-time winner to make it three wins in a row for the Foxes.
The Nigerian pair have both made three appearances each in the English Championship. Leicester won the EPL in the 2015-16 season but were relegated at the end of last season.
