Two of the best Serie A strikers go head to head this weekend with Napoli and Inter meeting on matchday 29 of the Italian top flight. Here’s a look at how the Osimhen vs Martinez stats this season compare as two of the five highest scoring players in the division meet.
Lautaro Martinez is running away with the Serie A top goalscorer race. The Inter forward is on 23 league goals, leaving him eight clear of his nearest rival. Victor Osimhen by comparison is back on 11 although his ability to score league goals has been hampered by injuries as well as a lengthy trip to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Both players will be hungry to perform on Sunday after big midweek setbacks. Martinez missed the decisive spot kick as Inter exited the Champions League in Madrid while Osimhen was criticised for a poor performance in Barcelona with the Napoli frontman still continuously linked with a move away from the club.
Best Serie A strikers – Osimhen vs Martinez stats duel
Goals per minute
Lautaro Martinez has been lethal in front of goal this term, averaging a strike every 89 minutes in Serie A. His ability to score at better than a goal per game has been a key reason why Inter look to be strolling towards the title that Napoli won last season in part thanks to a similar contribution from Victor Osimhen.
It was always going to be tough for Napoli to match the heights of last term but it’s been a really difficult campaign on a number of levels. Osimhen has still scored at a healthy rate though, averaging a goal every 122 minutes in the Italian top flight, but that’s still some way off the goal every 99 minutes he recorded last season.
Shots to goal ratio
Both players are having a similar amount of shots with Martinez averaging 3.38 per 90 minutes while Osimhen averages 3.45 per 90 in Serie A.
However in terms of goals per shot, Martinez is clear of Osimhen and the other top strikers in Italy with an outstanding shot conversion rate of 28% compared to the Napoli man’s 18%.
No player to have clocked up more than 1000 Serie A minutes can rival Martinez’s shot conversion rate. In terms of players with 10 or more goals, Romelu Lukaku and Teun Koopmeiners are his nearest rivals with 20% conversion rates.
Goals vs xG
Martinez is also on an outstanding +8.4 Goals minus xG which essentially means he has scored eight more times than would be expected relative to the chances he has been presented with.
Osimhen is on +1.2 according to the same metric which isn’t too shabby either and that goes up to +2.4 if we exclude penalties which are more influenced by luck in terms of goalkeepers guessing to dive the right way.
Current form
Osimhen has shown signs of getting back towards his best level in recent weeks, most noticeably when he fired in a hat-trick against Sassuolo in February. That saw him move onto five goals in three games since returning from AFCON duty, although he’s failed to net in three outings since then.
As for Lautaro Martinez, his form has largely held throughout the season. The Argentina international has scored six times in his last 10 games in all competitions, although he’ll no doubt be dealing with a few demons after his horror penalty at the Estadio Metropolitano on Wednesday night.
Will Osimhen and Martinez fire this weekend?
With two of the best Serie A strikers meeting, it’s no surprise that both Lautaro Martinez and Victor Osimhen feature heavily in the betting markets for Inter’s game against Napoli.
Martinez is priced at 15/4 to score first and 13/10 to score anytime while you can back the Inter striker to bounce back with a hat-trick at 28/1. Osimhen meanwhile is available at quite long odds of 11/4 to score anytime while he’s 8/1 to score first.
If you fancy a double backing Martinez and Osimhen to both score in this match, you can get odds of around 15/2.
