Crotone's towering frontman, Simy, surpassed Obafemi Martins' 28-goal Serie A haul last weekend, as he continues to defy expectations in the Italian top flight.
The Pythagoreans became the first team to suffer relegation in the 2019-20 Serie A season while 19th-placed Parma await their fate when they travel to Torino for their next league fixture on Monday.
Simy could not add to his tally of 19 goals after 34 league appearances for Serse Cosmi s side on Saturday, however, Algeria s Adam Ounas, Libya s Ahmed Benali and Ivory Coast s Koffi Djidji were also in action for the hosts.
On the other hand, Morocco defender Hakimi continued his fine debut campaign in Italy and he took his tally to seven goals with his stoppage-time effort for Antonio Conte s men.
Parma leveled matters through Hernani in the 29th minute after the visiting side had taken a 14th-minute lead through Lisandro Magallan.
Three minutes before the half-time break, Nwankwo put the relegation-threatened team ahead after tapping past goalkeeper Simone Colombi from an Adam Ounas cross.
In the goal-laden first half, Serse Cosmi’s men extended their lead through Algeria international Ounas with the last strike of the first 45 minutes.
Goals from Cote d’Ivoire international Gervinho and Valentin Mihaila put Roberto D Aversa’s team back on equal terms. The 49th-minute goal ended Gervinho s 15-game goal drought in the Italian top-flight - a run that lasted 1176 minutes after his last effort in the Serie A (a brace against Genoa in November).
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Ebenezer Bajela
Published 13 March 2021
Crotone striker Simy Nwankwo bagged a brace against Lazio in their 3-2 defeat on Friday to emerge as Nigeria’s top-scorer ever in the Italian Serie A,
Saturday PUNCH reports.
Simy equalised twice from Crotone’s first two efforts on target, cancelling out first-half goals from Milinkovic-Savic and Luis Alberto in the 29th and 50th minutes.
But a goal from substitute Felipe Caicedo five minutes from time secured a hard-fought win for Lazio at the Olimpico stadium.
The double took Simy’s tally to 12 Serie A goals so far this season one more than Obafemi Martins’ 11 league goals with Inter Milan during the 2004/05 season and five higher than his previous best return of seven goals during the 2017/18 when Crotone couldn’t avoid the drop.