Chelsea 4-1 Napoli: Napoli unable to defend crosses
The starting line-ups
Chelsea produced an impressive display to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals.
Roberto Di Matteo chose a rough 4-2-3-1 system, with Daniel Sturridge wide on the right, and Ramires tucked in on the left.
Walter Mazzarri named his expected side – Juan Zuniga in ahead of Andrea Dossena was the only small debate in his selection. Zuniga got the nod, but then had to move to the right once Christian Maggio picked up an injury, and Dossena came on down the left.
This was an entertaining game with either side being ‘ahead’ in the tie at two separate points – Chelsea came out on top, though it wasn’t a particularly enthralling tactical battle.
Napoli leave two up
The major point of interest in the first half was that Napoli left both Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani very high up the pitch, in a sense replicating the tactics used by Basel last night at Bayern, but also continuing the strategy from the first leg, where Lavezzi played very high up and exploited the space in behind Branislav Ivanovic.
But Lavezzi often remained quite central when Chelsea had the ball – as did Cavani. There was no attempt for Napoli to retreat into the 5-4-1 shape they often form without the ball, presumably as they wanted to offer a continued attacking threat.
To a certain extent they did – Napoli broke well in the first half, although their decision-making in the opposition half was often poor, and a couple of sloppy passes let them down.
But further back it caused problems. Marek Hamsik dropped deep and played as an extra midfielder, but on the opposite flank Napoli had little protection, with Walter Gargano forced to move across to that side. If he couldn’t, then the wing-back would move up the pitch and deal with the danger, and the relevant centre-back would move across into the full-back position. In theory that worked OK, but Napoli were terrible at putting pressure upon the man with the ball in the wide zones. The first goal, for example, came when Ramires was given all the time in the world to put a cross into the box, and Didier Drogba was exactly the man to thrive on this opportunity.
Napoli won 6-3 at the weekend against Cagliari, but all three goals they conceded were headers scored by Joaquin Larrivey, a basic number nine – this is suddenly something they’re vulnerable to (which is bizarre considering their system, which features three centre-backs and decent width on both sides). Morgan De Sanctis also flapped at an early corner, indicating he wasn’t happy with the ball being delivered from wide either.
But the problem continued, with John Terry completely free to head in at the start of the second from a corner. Even the corner had been conceded when Hugo Campagnaro headed behind under no pressure, suggesting poor communication – then from the corner, Gokhan Inler’s marking was non-existent. Lampard’s third came from a penalty, conceded after yet more poor marking from a corner.
Despite this clear weakness and Chelsea taking advantage, the home side weren’t doing their best to exploit the problems. Di Matteo persisted with right-footed Ramires on the left (granted, he provided the assist for the goal, but he’s hardly a classic winger, and certainly not on the left) and Sturridge on the right. Even more strangely, Fernando Torres replaced Sturridge later on, and started off playing on the right – again, he wasn’t likely to provide good service for Drogba.
It took until extra time for Di Matteo to realise the potential. He removed Juan Mata, who had been quiet, and introduced a player comfortable playing down the left, Florent Malouda. Ramires went to the right, and Torres went upfront. 4-4-2. Now Chelsea had two players in more comfortable wide roles, and two strikers in the box to get on the end of crosses. Chelsea were now more direct – see De Sanctis’ error for Torres’ missed open goal (from a narrow angle).
Eventually the fourth did come from a cross, of sorts. The combination of Drogba and Ivanovic wasn’t what the formation had intended, but the move did come after Ramires went down the outside on the right.
Other features
The game wasn’t all about Chelsea delivery from wide areas, of course. Napoli were surprisingly shapeless throughout the game, particularly in extra time when they seemed to tire quickly. Inler’s goal was excellent, but he gave the ball away too often, both with passes and failed dribbles. Walter Gargano was also disappointing, with a pass completion rate down at 67% compared to his usual 82%, although he would argue that his job was to prompt quick attacks with direct passes.
Chelsea did all the physical aspects of the game well – they won over two-thirds of the aerial duels, Ramires provided great energy from midfield and continued driving well into extra-time, and the substitutes gave them more freshness – Napoli’s two (tactical) changes came in extra-time when Chelsea were sitting deep behind the ball, and they didn’t enjoy the benefit of fresh legs.
Conclusion
Napoli broke well in the first quarter of an hour, but even then they didn’t look at their best with the ball. They needed to score in that period, because the constant balls into the box from Chelsea were defended terribly, and the limitations of three fairly average centre-backs (with the slight exception of Paolo Cannavaro) were highlighted. These are midtable Serie A players competing in the knockout round of the Champions League, and unfortunately they weren’t up to scratch. Like Basel, their gameplan depended upon sitting deep then breaking – but you have to be able to deal with the constant pressure, and defend the penalty box well.
However, Drogba was excellent. This was the old-style Drogba – the target of route one balls and crosses compared to the neater, tidier link-up man Andre Villas-Boas wanted:
I still think Chelsea lack rhythm to their attacks but at least they showed some steel today. Lampard and Drogba had good games but i was mightily impressed with David Luiz and John Terry at the back today against a quick attack built around playing balls in behind.
Good result for Chelsea and even Torres came on and looked lively.
Have to say that Hamsik really impressed tonight, seems to find it easy picking up the ball in space and playing sensible passes in advanced areas of the pitch. This was the first i’ve seen of Napoli live in a long time and i think over the two legs they have shown they should be in and around the knockout stages of the Champions League for a few years to come!
For of my thoughts please check out:
http://thompsontalkstactics.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/chelsea-4-napoli-1-a-e-t-chelsea-win-5-4-on-aggregate-14th-march-2012/ if you like.
So proud this evening – the Bridge was properly rocking for the first time this season. Bring on Barcelona et all!
Drogba at his prime was the best deep lying forward for Mourinho’s counter-attacking 4-3-3 system. He plays a lot with his back (pivotal forward), he keeps possession with relative ease, and he’s able to spread the ball to the flanks without losing it even when under heavy pressure.
Great to see the old-style Drogba tonight, MVP of the match for me.
I thought we did see the old Drogba, a target for wingers to aim at and he had an excellent game. It was quite blatant Chelsea were thriving down the right side due to Lavezzi sitting deep, all in all a highly entertaining game but tactically nothing special. But eh, you got to love these thrilling spectacles that English sides have been offering recently!
Napoli didn’t break well, particularly by their high standards. Perhaps Hamsik was more restrained than usual or the Maggio injury was to blame.
After seeing that defending from Napoli, whoever weighed up their strengths and weaknesses and decided that to improve the team they should sign a South American forward (Vargas) for +£10m probably needs sacking.
Napoli are fourth in Serie A, they need third to get into the CL this year. I presume it’s preparation for life after Cavani/Lavezzi/Hamisk.
Like Lyon, always replace your players before you get rid of them.
Eduardo Vargas
Fair enough then. Would be impressive to see their attack as strong as this again any time soon though. Some degree of Champions League success seems like a missed opportunity for this season now. One that was probably preventable.
1. how about not getting rid of them in the first place?
I remain baffled at the continued use of Aronica. Why do they not employ Britos?
Britos was hurt; and so was another solid CB, Grava
Well that should shut up all the nay-sayers about the current quality of the Prem. Right..?
PS: I love Didier, he’s everything Andy Carrol wants to be but isn’t
There is no top-class European team in the Prem, sorry.
Just because Chelsea get to be in the same hat as APOEL doesn’t mean the Premier League’s critics are suddenly wrong. Depends on the draw if they can go further, since I don’t think they will fancy themselves against some of the remaining teams.
Napoli’s counter-attacking style wasn’t executed well today, and without the patience to retain the ball it exposed them to directness, something Chelsea and Drogba did very well. Part of the problem with being super-direct is lack of precision and effectively playing percentages. Napoli’s defenders are fairly average, they have a short team, and their hesitance to play keep ball (particularly at the 2-1 phase when even a Chelsea goal wouldn’t be the end!) just made them more vulnerable.
That’s not so say Chelsea didn’t play well. Drogba was very good, and their wide players took on their men well, whilst Essien and Lampard weren’t to the level of the attackers they did their job well enough. Ivanovic was good to, driving forwards constantly. Full credit to Chelsea for winning 4-1, but Napoli played into Chelsea’s hands (or maybe just Drogba’s
) too easily.
The whole match I was wondering why Lavezzi and Cavani were staying so central!
Putting words in Di Matteo’s mouth, but could the idea have been to invert Ramires and Sturridge to give the Chelsea fullbacks area to overlap and provide service? This happened surprisingly little (though more from Ivanovic, which is interesting considering both the their respective abilities and the positioning of Hamsik and Lavezzi) but it sounds good in theory. It also would have put Sturridge in a position to drive at Aronica, clearly Napoli’s weakest defender.
Why have Napoli not bothered buying a quick covering centre back?
I’d say Campagnaro is Napoli’s best centre-back. The only Champions Leauge quality Paolo Cannavaro has about him is his surname.
agree. Hugo Campagnaro is the best of the bunch
Surely AVB should be consigned to the rubbish pile now. When Roberto di Matteo makes you look like a moron it’s time to bring in your motor. Whoever thought he could cut the mustard needs to eat a lot of humble pie now.
I agree with Gismy Frank.
Your comment is so stupid i’m amazed you were able to type it.
1. AVB won the Euro League last year, so he’s obviously not “rubbish.”
2. Ferguson, often acclaimed as the best manager in the EPL, didn’t win anything from ‘86, when he took over, until ‘90. AVB got 8 months. He might have turned out to be the next top manager in the league with Chelsea if they had some patience, but of course they don’t.
3. It’s stupid to hire a manager who comes with a system when the team in place is not well-suited to play that system, and it’s even stupider to blame the manager for lack of immediate success in such a situation.
All this proves that (A) Abramovich is dumber than rock salt as well as being an oligarchical thief of his countrymen’s wealth, and (B) you are clueless.
Nice…Published!
Hate to sound like a hater but i dont really buy the hype about Hamsik. I take it i’m missing something when I watch him?
Same goes for me. I don’t think he’s as good as people think he is, and he often goes missing in big matches
He was better in 09-10 and 10-11 but Cavani somewhat stole.his limelight he was captain I think stand in for cannavro but yeah he was great at world cup also but he’s down in form a bit this past year. Still, as clean a striker of the ball as you’ll see.
Hamsik is always like that. He comes alive and invisible in a game, its usual, that’s why no one that followed him really hyped him up, he’s too inconsistent to get so much hype.
I agree with Hamsik going missing. However to give him credit, I have noticed that he has great off-the-ball movement, the guy just knows where he’s going on a football pitch. And although he possesses great finishing and knows how to strike a ball, 40m is just WAY too much, 25m seems a decent price tag given his reputation, but based on pure skills, I’d pay about 18-22m for him.
Does anyone think Hamsik does a similar job to Boateng’s role at Milan for Napoli, linking the midfield to the attack in a counter-attacking set up, albeit with less physicality?
all attcking midfielders link the midfield to the attack, but Hamsik and Boateng do it in different fashion.
Boateng uses strength, Hamsik his brain
Michael, Zuniga has been Mazzari’s first-chioce left wingback in big games this season, not Dossena- the Columbian started 6 of Napoli’s 8 CL games at left wingback, once at right wingback. The only game he missed was at Sao Paulo to Man City, for which he was suspended. So that shouldn’t have been any kind of surprise that he started here.
I think Mazzari is happy to play a right-footer there, because Lavezzi provides more width than Hamsik on the other side. Not here though, I think in the first half the Argentine played high up the pitch on the right side against Cole, who stayed back there, not providing an attacking threat for his team, but not providing space to exploit either. Then after half-time Lavezzi and Hamsik swapped sides and it went back to the classic formation of the trio which you have depicted here; after watching several of Napoli’s recent matches, I think they play nowadays more with Lavezzi on the right and Hamsik centre-left.
Thought Cole had his best offensive game in a while tonight, Ramires tucking in from the left gave him a lot of responsibility on the left side and he ran that side.
I think Napoli had to pay for playing too many matches without using too much of the bench. Next year they need to upgrade their quality in the bench.
This is a good point. They don’t use very much squad rotation and there is a clear drop-off in quality from the bench (Pandev or Cavani? Inler or Dzemaili?). That’s one of the problems that face “smaller” clubs in Europe these days, the emphasis on super-fitness, squad rotation, and the luxurious resting of players before big games isn’t really available to them (Fullham’s run a few years ago is another example), even if their first team’s can have very good players, even world class.
Mind you, in the Bundesliga squad rotation is pretty rare if you ask me, maybe just due to less cavalier transfer policy, or cultural stubbornness.
Good analysis, thanks. Something interesting about this Chelsea team in the RDM games is that they generally don’t seem to be looking like putting away a goal until they actually do, but nonetheless it’s seemed to happen every time so far. That’s a bit of a contrast to, say, Madrid, who seem to get quite a few clear-cut chances and just need to put them away. It could be a matter just of quality, or just a coincidence over the last few games, but may be worth keeping an eye on.
I suppose that Madrid also have slightly different players, in that players like Ronaldo, di Maria, Benzema, etc., are more capable of pulling off quick, individual or combined moves to get past opposition, while Chelsea seem to mainly just keep going at it until something sticks (not necessarily a bad thing.) This could open up some interesting uses for a pacier player like Sturridge, who takes on defenders and is quite strong on the counter, as an alternate route of attack.
Chelsea – Really strong performance from Chelsea, in a game I thought they would lose.
In defense, I was really impressed by how well they played the ball out from the back, with John Terry and David Luiz key to Chelsea controlling the game. They were helped by a lack of pressure from Napoli high up though. Ivanovic was also really effective going forward, giving Chelsea a threat on the right hand side where Sturridge was very quiet (though his winning goal came from a strange central position, bravely staying up in the penalty area). He has really improved this season on his attacking qualities and has made the RB position his own.
In midfield, Essien was excellent as the holding midfielder. He used to be the box to box midfielder personified, but now looks much better suited to this role. His passing was fantastic and allowed Chelsea control of the game, while he positioned himself well to cut off suply to Lavezzi. Lampard set the tone for pressing in midfield, pressing high against Gargano and stopping Napoli from playing the ball out from defense. He also timed some great late runs excellently, getting into the penalty area for some good chances, and probably should have scored. He did leave some space behind him for Hamsik at times though and got caught high up the pitch when Napoli were able to break.
Ramires played a curious role on the left, playing quite narrow and pressing Inler when off the ball and along with Lampard stopped Napoli’s midfield from getting the ball forward. But attacking wise he pretty ineffective apart from the assist, where he just wasn’t closed down well like ZM said. On the other side Sturridge had a poor game, completely anonymous for most of the game, I wasnt surprised to see him come off (though Torres on the right seemed a strange choice).
Mata started as the central attacking midfielder, a position he has actually rarely played this season. I think it was a fairly standard performance from him, he played some great passes, created a few good chances and was pretty poor defensively (an argument against him playing centrally). But in this game he was also pressured a bit more (his pass completion rate was lower than normal) and didn’t quite get into enough goalscoring chances himself. Not the star player in this game, but an acceptable performance.
Drogba started ahead of Torres which was definitely the right choice. He was a great target man for the side, and held up the ball excellently, allowing the rest of the side forward. He was always a threat in the air (as his goal proved) and won a crazy amount of free kicks to get his team up the pitch (criticized by many for it, but an effective way of helping Chelsea win this game). His passes weren’t always great and he lost the ball a lot, but he did manage to play a couple of great through balls that could have resulted in goals and obviously got the assist for the winning goal.
Overall, Chelsea kept the ball excellently in deep areas, had a big threat up front in Drogba who Napoli just couldn’t handle and managed to get men forward effectively like Lampard and Ivanovic. There is a question mark whether Mata can dominate games when Drogba is on the pitch, as the team tends to play it direct to him, but having both options is definitely a bonus for Chelsea I think.
Check out my blog if you get the chance by clicking my name
A midfielder IS a person. I also accept Juan Mata’s performance, so that makes two us whose acceptance he has but will never need.
I don’t quite get the point about a midfielder being a person, did I say they weren’t?
Umm okay, I was just pointing out he didn’t dominate the game like has done previously, still a world class player. Was that not a fair comment?
still doesn’t get the hint…
I didn’t even post my link, so I don’t know what your talking about?
“Check out my blog if you get the chance by clicking my name
” – promoting clicking on a link, so you know what we’re talking about”?”
what hint? people spamming the comments with posts that just amount to “check out my web site” are obviously not cool, but Kane has been commenting here with substantial interest and putting forth interesting ideas since before he ever started seeking traffic for his blog. I for one don’t mind, though obviously ZM is not my blog and if it bothers Mr. Cox then he’ll have to desist.
Not at all!
One of the reasons people think Mata should play centrally is his lack of defensive quality. Containing an attacking fullback is much more work than dropping onto a deep lying playmaker.
but he doesnt press very well either….
Chelsea v Madrid in the quarters! When is the draw?
Friday 10:35 am
Napoli – Were poor in this game and a shadow of themselves from the first leg.
In defense, they defended poorly. Cannavaro was dominated by Drogba in the air and couldnt handle him. Aronica dealt with Sturridge well, but gave away the ball away far too much. While Campagnaro was the CB with the most time on the ball and tried to move out of defense and play the ball, but he seemed off-form for whatever reason, and couldn’t quite pull off his long range passes to attack. The wingbacks seemed alright at the start of the game, especially Maggio who had a lot of space in front of him to attack. But his injury meant Zuniga had to move to the right where he was ineffective and Dossena had to come on at LWB and he didn’t have a great game against the rampaging Ivanovic (even giving away the penalty).
In midfield, Gargano and Inler were pressured well, like in the first leg. But without Campagnarro and the Wingbacks offering an outlet, this meant Napoli couldn’t get the ball forward effectively. Gargano was pressured excellently by Lampard and constantly gave away the ball in dangerous positions, though defensively he played a good game for Napoli – helping stop Mata from becoming too involved. Inler was pressured less effectively by ramires and kept the ball better, but he was poor defensively, allowing Lampard forward unchecked throughout the game and not really helping out with Ramires either. His goal was quality and he followed it up with some great passes, with Lampard not really tracking hi either.
Hamsik managed to get the ball in dangerous positions behind Lampard and seemed the only link between the defense and the attack. He looked a good threat with his penetrative passing and long range shooting, though he made the wrong decision a couple of times on the break. Lavezzi played too central at times and didnt manage to take advantage of Ivanovic getting forward like in the first leg, a strange decision when it worked so well then. He was still a good threat however on the break, as he could often run at the chelsea defense at speed and caused them some problems, but like Hamsik he made a few bad decisions on the break. Cavani had a poor game, losing out in the air to Terry and rarely seeing the ball in good positions, while his passing also gave away the ball a lot in promising positions.
Overall, Napoli struggled to get the ball out defense and into attack. Their wingbacks had problems getting forward (either on wrong side or pushed back), their ball playing CB was off form and their CM’s were heavily pressed. their best chance was getting the ball to Hamsik in space behind Lampard or playing it long to Lavezzi (though the latter required precise passing that the Napoli players couldn’t pull off). Cavani, as Napoli’s best player will feel aggrieved he couldn’t get into the game more, while it was puzzling the coach didn’t instruct Lavezzi to play wider and exploit Ivanovic again.
Anyone notice the midfield formations, if not everyone between #9 and the back 4/5, were pretty much aligned in the same asymmetric pattern? To what extent do you think that was intentional for either of the managers? A nullification approach with more 1:1 battles seems to me like it would certainly favor the more powerful, less mobile team (Chelsea).
If anyone has thoughts on this, a paragraph, or two, is enough, right? Thanks!
Chelsea were always going to give this kind of game, butthe performance.of it was unexpectedly high.
Napoli had to concentrate more in one on ones and crosses- the scoreline does flatter Chelsea.and over the two games, picking a deserved winner is hard but we’d all rather see swashbuckling napoli than Chelsea s dinosaurs next round eh? Perhaps pandev given more.game time and hamsik/ lavezzi as classic wingers would have helped.
Also is it me or has Zola used some product to get that hair back…
It’s not really clear to me what options RDM had out wide other than keep rameriz out there and let cole run into space. Like AVB before him, the lack of true wide forwards is the gaping wound that he’s got to try to patch together w odd parts. Yes Malouda looks the part but has looked indifferent and flat out shiitty all year. I’d rather have rameriz in there knowing he’s going to track back and bulldog their mids all nite long. Plus he actually put in a few decent crosses. At89 mins his cross to drogba could have won the game
Napoli lost because the front three was terrible, neither of them, especially Cavani, played well
It’s not even that Cavani played played terribly; it’s that he barely saw the ball in the second half or extra time. And he pulled a “Torres” during the first half several times–picking up the ball from his own half. I suspect these are related–he was told to push even higher in the second half, and hence lost chances to move with it.
In the first leg, Cavani was able to make diagonal runs into the space behind Ivanovic and Boswinga/Cole when they went to forward. Today, he couldn’t do that, both because of his defensive positioning and Luiz tracking him much more effectively than Cahill.
Lovely write-up ZM, really enjoyed it – especially the bit of old-style Drogba love.
Think you were a little harsh on Di Matteo for using Ramires on the left initially though. He improved his attacking threat and balanced the side out while on the right later but he did an excellent defensive job on Maggio, Napoli’s most dangerous wing-back in my opinion, and later on Zuniga who was always going to be more dangerous than the poor Dossena. Sturridge or Mata on the left may have been a more balanced option but both are suspect defensively and with Cole pushing on early in the game and the Essien/Lampard pivot taking a while to settle I thought he was a key component in tracking and pressing as well as carrying the ball into the final third.
Drogba was immense but Ramires excelled on both the left and the right for me and was the engine behind Drogba’s barnstorming performance.
One of most dramatic CL games so far, Probably Both set of fan feel so much agony in the processing of game. Again Drogba show why he was called complete striker, hold the ball, spread ball well when it is needed, good header etc, It is shame he is bit old now so he become inconsistent. I think AVB fail to adapt premiership environment, it is really difficult to push up defense line because many lesser or able teams use route one football in English premiership.
A few points:
Chelsea’s opener can as a result of Maggio’s injury. He was slow to close down the ball because he was struggling with it. I thought Napoli took a ridiculously long time to replace him. He was on the pitch doing nothing for about 5 full minutes.
On that note; I think Mazzari used his substitutes badly. It was well into injury time before he used his second sub, this seems very hard to justify.
I was disappointed with Napoli’s attacking play. They lacked guile in attacking areas, often making the wrong decision and failing to create. Napoli’s strength is the counter-attack, but I thought they did that quite badly last night too. They managed to create this situation a few times, first half especially, but the attacks themselves were poorly executed. When they attempted to break Chelsea down they were very poor, creating next to nothing in the second half of extra time.
And finally; what the hell is wrong with Italian teams? Why did both AC and Napoi go to England and suffer so badly?
Perhaps the italian teams can’t cope with the faster tempo and power that english teams play at when they at home.
Perhaps we could come up with a less ethnocentric theory, especially since only 3 englishmen played for the “english” team?
Even though Napoli is a faster team than Chelsea and with greater stamina. After all, last time Chelsea won the league it was with Italian management and a narrow Christmas Tree shape. What a tired stereotype.
Not sure about the stamina part- Napoli looked pretty exhausted as the game went on(while Chelsea didn’t).
ACM bossed the second half to be fair. Their first half were torn into pieces thanks to Mesbah’s nervyness and poor showing by the whole team.
Napoli looking lost there, i don’t know but they don’t even seem to be dangerous at all with the ball. Maybe they can’t cope the pressure, it reminded me with their performance at Villareal, same performance within pressure to win the game, but in lesser extent. They play horribly, woeful at possesion, only came to live after second half when Inler strucked the ball into the net, finally found their confidence to take the win, but in Stamford Bridge, even after Inler scores they still have no confidence to see themselves goes through.
robbie di matteo changed formation in one game more than avb did in 6 months! the changes might not always have worked but at least it showed a manager williing to back himself
we started with a 4-2-3-1, when torres came on it was almost a 4-2-4. when we equalised, he changed to a diamond (which got horribly exposed) then malouda came on and we reverted to a 4-3-3 for the last few minutes
y fail to mention the space between the lines that napoli exploited to the max? their goal n most of their shots came from that zone as a result of poor policing in that zone by michael essien.this has become a feature now rem man u v chelsea last year..great win, great game, come on chelsea!
You say “Roberto Di Matteo chose a rough 4-2-3-1 system”, but wasn’t it John Terry who chose this system?
“I don’t control the tactics,” says the guy shouting instructions from the bench…
I actually think Drogba did an amazing job with the hold up play. Clearly the man of the match for my money.
Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid, AC Milan vs Chelsea. Please? These would be the perfect games I feel. It’s hard to see Bayern beating Barcelona over two legs, but if they keep up their form, I think a tie with Madrid would be completely even. Bayern at home would probably beat Madrid 2-1 or maybe even 3-1 (Madrid are pretty sloppy away, they give up lots of chances), but would they be able to survive the Santiago Bernabeu? Di Maria might give Madrid another huge boost. Bayern boast the best set of wingers in one single team in the world. But Madrid, with Ronaldo and Di Maria, is probably even superior in this regard. And Chelsea vs AC Milan… Would be a good tie in my opinion. Unlike Napoli, AC Milan have the defense to deal with Chelsea’s crossing. Also, unlike Napoli, they can actually keep possession and dominate a game. And unlike Arsenal, Chelsea don’t have the legs to expose Milan. Barcelona vs Chelsea would also be very interesting. Unlike popular belief, Barcelona is actually pretty decent at defending headers. But people seem to think that an all out physical display would be needed to beat Barcelona, and Chelsea might be able to do that, just like 3 years ago.
Nice write up, ZM!
Will you do the City game?
About this game, really shocked about how Napoli defended… I was expecting them to switch to their conservative 5-3-2, but they didn’t. And were trashed by it.
Credit di Matteo for playing a somewhat deep defensive line and denying the space in behind that Napoles are so keen to explore.
That also had a secondary effect of stretching the field of play!
Napoles were unable to press because Chelsea had a deep line and Drogba very high. There was just too much space for the Napoles midfielders to cover. And even Inler and Gargano, two players with fantastic stamina, eventually tire.
Napoles was also trying to play a structured game, instead of their more direct approach… that also cause the team to always play higher and spend a lot of energy going forward.
One could argue they were naive… too much for a CL match.
They should have just sit down and defended their lead…
I’m not one for defending someone for “negative” football, but in this case it was so blatantly clear that being negative would see them through, that any other strategy just feels wrong.
Ramirez man of the match, he was everywhere. Notice that when he crosses for the drogba goal maggio was just injured and could hardly walk. He was supposed to mark ramirez…
Drogba was immense and had loads of power and energy. Certainly did not look like someone who is 33 (or 32?).