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Result: Napoli 1 – 3 Real Madrid: Mertens 24’; Ramos 51’, 57’, Morata 91’ (2-6 on agg.)
Real Madrid’s visit to Naples panned out almost exactly the way it did when Napoli had turned up in Madrid. The Italian team scored first, before bucking and conceding three goals in return. An aggregate of 6-2 however does no justice to the way Napoli played for the majority of the tie. They were fine going forward, and showed great attacking zeal and verve in their play that many-a-team struggle to find (hello, London-based-teams-knocked-out-of-Europe)
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Having said that Madrid were deserved winners, on the night, and in the tie, and move into the quarterfinals rather more comfortably than that first 45 minutes at the San Paolo suggested. They now have a very real chance of becoming the first club in the Champions League era to retain their crown.
5. Has there been a better goal-scoring defender than Sergio Ramos?
A word of advice to any team playing a big match against Madrid... do anything you can to prevent the concession of a corner. With Napoli leading 1-0 and having thrust Real Madrid on to the back foot. Till the 51st minute. Toni Kroos took the corner, and who was there to head it in? El capitan himself Sergio Ramos. The enigmatic Spaniard may have become a touch more susceptible at the back – as Napoli’s brilliant attack showed over and over again in the opening half – but he’s become absolutely lethal going forward... and has mastered the art of stepping up to the plate when the team needs someone to the most.
So, naturally, six minutes later he rose highest to guide home another excellent Kroos corner – via a deflection – into the back of the net. That one effectively killed off the game and eased the pressure on his team. Ease is too light a word, actually, it was more like someone had popped a balloon and the pressure just went whizzing out.
He’s scored 21 goals over the last couple of years, and 18 of them have come when Madrid where either behind, or level. That man is quite something.
4. The home crowd show great, though ultimately futile, spirit
The ever brilliant crowd at the San Paolo showed just what it meant to be in the business end of the premier club tournament in the world. Queuing up had started more than six hours before kick-off, and 10,000 Napoli faithful had already found their seats five hours before kick-off. By the time the referee drew breath after his first blast of the whistle, the stadium was filled to its rafters with massive banners and whirling scarves filling the night sky. Trailing 3-1 from the first leg, their optimism was astonishing, and uplifting.
Everytime Napoli moved forward they roared furiously, and everytime Madrid strung together more than a couple of passes, they whistled and booed even louder. Their spirit transmitted itself on to their representatives on the pitch, and almost, almost got their team back into it. And then Sergio Ramos decided to step and nip the fairtytale in the bud and although the last thirty minutes turned into a slow procession of Madrid’s passage to the quarters, no one left their seats as they waited to applaud their heroes who had just been at the end of a 6-2 aggregate hiding.
It was just fantastic to see a crowd get behind their team like that, win or, here is the important bit, lose.
3. Napoli dazzle in attack, not so much in defence
Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens, Jose Callejon and the indefatigable Marek Hamsik were brilliant in the first half – pressing incessantly high up the pitch, forcing the Madrid players onto the backfoot and making them commit far too many mistakes, and creating bucket-loads of shooting opportunites that they simply failed to capitalise on. Unlike the away game, where they understandably sat back and tried to counter at pace, they needed to grab the initiative from the get-go, and they did. Going into the first half the game really was balanced on a knife’s edge.
Their defense, though, is another thing. And it’s what tipped the game Madrid’s way in the second half. Napoli have kept just two clean sheets in the last three months, and even when they were completely dominating Madrid, they looked like they could concede any minute – as that Ronaldo chance in the 30th minute showed (where he ran in between the central defenders, rounded Reina, and smacked the post). Both the corner goals were a result as much of sloppy marking as it was of Sergio Ramos’ immense ability and the third goal – scored by former Juve man Alvaro Morata – merely added salt into the open wound that was Maurizio Sarri’s defence.
2. Maybe it’s time for BBC to be broken up
Cristiano Ronaldo was not at a 100%, Gareth Bale simply looked lost and Benzema actually had a decent outing... but this match threw in sharp relief just how blunt an attack the famed BBC have become. When Madrid are being pushed back, they become completely disconneted from their midfield and the unwillingness of Ronaldo and Bale to run the often un-rewarding channels just means that the trio of Kroos, Modric and Casemiro have their work cut out in finding a useful attacking outlet to relieve the pressure on them, and their defence.
A particularly illuminating moment came in the 12th minute when Bale was played in on the right. Benzema and Ronaldo both made great runs into the box assuming the Welshman would cross it immediately, but he dawdled on the ball and eventually when he put it in, it ended up with Benzema running into Ronaldo and messing up whatever chance the latter had of getting a clean header on goal. Of course, it would have been irrelevant if Ronaldo had got his header on target because he’d been flagged offside, but that one passage of play showed just how chaotic the communication between the front three have become, and just how less lethal than just a couple of years ago.
1. Real Madrid channel their manager’s champion ‘Will to Win’
Forget about lucky, what Zidane’s Madrid really are are winners. The great Frenchman was a player of ethereal beauty, but what is often forgotten in the haze of aesthetic nostalgia is the fact that he had that rare quality that marks the Champions apart from the others; an un-bendable ‘Will to Win’.
Without really playing all that well at any stage of the tourrnament, Madrid have now eased their way into the quarterfinals of the competition they covet above all, and are still in the pole position in La Liga (they may be a point behind Barca, but they have a game in hand). They have now scored in their 47th game running, in all competitions, and they’ve never really looked like losing any game they’ve played in over the full ninety minutes.
His team may not have the supernatural brilliance of his playing heyday, but Zinedine Zidane’s men sure do know how to win a football game.
