Victor Osimhen scored the initial goal in early October and a foolish own goal by Serder Saatci helped the Italian champions qualify second in Group C, behind Real Madrid. Both goals came in the first half.
After ending a six-match winless drought at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Walter Mazzarri’s team easily progressed for the following round. They would have advanced even in the event of a single-goal defeat.
After defeating Udinese in late September, Napoli had not won at Naples before. As a result, they ended the group stage with 10 points, six more than Braga, who were dropped to the Europa League.
With less than two minutes remaining, Bruma missed a fantastic opportunity to give the away team the lead following some miscommunication in the Napoli area. Braga realized they needed to win by a minimum of two goals if they wanted to overtake Napoli.
But in the ninth minute, Matteo Politano’s low cross caused the unfortunate Saatci to misstep, sending the ball rolling towards his own goal and making their work even more difficult.
Napoli pressed for a moment, but Braga’s long-range rocket from Ricardo Horta kept it from leveling thanks to an incredible save by Alex Meret.
But Osimhen, the recently named African player of the year, essentially guaranteed Napoli’s advancement to another round in the 33rd minute.
The Nigerian striker was left speechless moments earlier when Piotr Zielinski chose to slam a shot straight at Matheus instead of squaring to him when he was absolutely unmarked just yards from goal.
However, on this occasion, Natan executed the perfect pass after breaking down the left flank, enabling Osimhen to slot home his seventh goal of the challenging campaign thus far in southern Italy.
Braga had to score four goals without answering after Osimhen’s opening goal in this season’s Champions League, and there was a palpable sense of relief in the spectators and on the field.
The sole unfavorable aspect of the proceedings were Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s ongoing form struggles; this season, the unmotivated Georgian has yet to make an impression in the highest club tournament in Europe.
But in the new year, he will get another opportunity because of a victory that ended an awful streak of three straight defeats and might give struggling Napoli some confidence.
