Game in a sentence
An absorbing encounter in Naples sees South Americans Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi dominate and pile more pressure on Andre Villas-Boas as his side head home fortunate to be down by just two goals.
Observations
- Chelsea were woeful. Sky Sports analyst Gary Neville spent most of the game ripping Napoli for their defensive issues, but this was a game about difference makers and in the dynamic duo up top Napoli had two players who were on a different level to anything the visitors could offer.
- If it wasn’t for Petr Cech we’d be talking about the end of England’s involvement in this season’s Champions League. Arsenal were battered in Italy last week in their performance and on the scoreboard and Chelsea came very close to being on the end of something similar.
- The game itself was incredibly open, an absolute treat to watch for any neutral. Many people questioned Chelsea’s starting XI that was sent out in a 4-2-3-1 although Juan Mata was finally picked to play centrally. The problem they had was the pair inside the ’2′ never worked the way the manager would have imagined it. Raul Meireles and Ramires got very little time on the ball up against Gokhan Inler and Walter Gargano and were far too careless in possession. Neville and Martin Tyler on Sky were unsure about Ramires in such a role, but the Brazilian is a very good player and has the ability to adapt to a deeper role, but must be partnered with a more defensive player. In fact, in the Copa America he played in such a role inside a 4-2-3-1 alongside Lucas Leiva and was excellent. In Naples on this night, Meireles would often drift up field and leave Ramires to do the work and expose the back four. Chelsea desperately needed a player to drop deep and sit between the unsure pair of Gary Cahill and David Luiz, so the pair could be stretched and cover the holes that Napoli exploited between centre backs and full backs.
- Following Cech’s early heroics, Chelsea actually silenced the raucous home crowd when Juan Mata put the visitors ahead, taking advantage of a horrendous error by Paolo Cannavaro after 27 minutes. It wasn’t exactly what Chelsea deserved at the time but was a victory for Villas-Boas having Mata in a central role where he could make a difference.
- Napoli responded brilliantly and were level 11 minutes later when the brilliant Lavezzi breezed by Meireles and blasted an unstoppable shot past Cech into the far corner. Seven minutes later, just before half-time, Cavani made another brilliant run behind the defence, beating Branislav Ivanovic to a sublime ball by Gokhan Inler to chest home a deserved go-ahead goal.
- The second half was even more wide open than the first. You could make the argument that it was the most wide open Champions League game that you’d ever see. For the first twenty minutes both sides took it in turns to put the pressure on their opponents and try and unlock the defences, which at both ends were not very good. Perhaps, that’s why Chelsea went after Napoli because of their weakness at the back. In fact, Mata confirmed after the game that his manager asked his team to get another goal which has to be said is a strange thing to ask for when you are down 2-1 away from home in Europe. The strategy worked against the visitors on 65 minutes when a simple ball over the top was embarrassingly not cleared by Luiz, allowing Cavani to round the onrushing Cech and find his mate Lavezzi who slotted home.
- Although the strike came when Chelsea played their best, the third goal was the very least Napoli deserved. Sure, they have issues at the back, but their quality going forward and counter attacking with pace is fantastic and one that a team that has spent a lot of money like Chelsea need to respect and admire. Today’s win was a victory for their scouting and developing team and that doesn’t get talked about enough. They could have scored six goals in this game while Chelsea scored one through a mistake and had very few chances which was surprising considering Napoli’s defenders belonged in the Sunday Leagues according to Neville.
- Those same defenders will be on show in the second leg where Napoli start in London with a two goal lead. Napoli scored five away goals in the group stages and they will likely get at least one at Stamford Bridge. That means Chelsea must get three, something they did in their last game at home in the Champions League against Valencia, which remains their best performance under their much maligned manager. The problem for Chelsea is they haven’t looked close to that side in the last two months. They have 22 days to get it right but after this performance they have a fairly big mountain to climb if they want to reach the final eight in Europe’s elite competition.
Three Stars
- Ezequiel Lavezzi
- Edinson Cavani
- Petr Cech
KJ – Obviously you weren’t listening closely enough to SIr Gary Neville’s expert commentary on the match because if you were, you would have known that Chelsea are clearly a better team, played far better in the game, and should have on 12-0
I love this!! Gary Neville was horrible, and he deserves all the criticism he is receiving.
Great summary, and a very entertaining match to be sure. Was really wondering at times what Gary Nev was seeing as he continually maligned Napoli (and by extension Serie A). Chelsea have been on the ‘down’ in Europe for some time, let alone this season under AVB, and tonight’s woeful display just underscored that for me.
I love watching Napoi, they are certainly the league’s great entertainers. I hope they go on to the QF, it’s always nice to see some new blood in the latter stages of the competition.
Gary Neville was aboslutely blind this game, not to mention unprofessionally and horribly biased. This just goes to show how overhyped, over glorified, and over confident people/supporters of the Premier League are. Im not gonna say the Serie A or La Liga are better, BUT the media has blinded so many people to the point in which they think it is impossible for their team to be the lesser of teams, let alone be embarassed as Arsenal were last week. I actually laughed when Neville compared Napoli to just any old EPL team that Chelsea faces on the weekend. Overall excellent performances by Napoli and Milan last week!
he was talking about the rest of the team apart from the trio, and quite honestly they’re not THAT much different from average pl teams.
im not saying the rest of the team are superstars but napoli have far better players than any average epl teams , eg. maggio and Inler who are underated players who fly under the radar
@Mike.. Ya I completely agree. Maggio and Zuniga played FAR better than Cole and Ivanovic along the flanks. Plus, Gargano was winning every 50/50 ball that came his way. And the ball Inler delivered to Cavani was better than any pass a Chelsea player made all game. Napoli are better than JUST their front three, and their midfield showed it. Napoli’s midfield blew Chelsea’s out of the water today
@Ryan…exactly and it was’nt even one of Zuniga’s better games either. its really getting hard to enjoy the games with such biased commentary, it was shameful at times
@Mike.. Ya it really was. The Milan game was more of the same. The commentators kept mentioning how weak of a side Milan are while the score was 3-0. Such overconfidence and arrogance around certain people when it comes to the EPL
The funny thing is if there were any teams this past week that resembled mid-table English clubs, it was Chelsea and Arsenal. The mighty have fallen. Badly.
its funny, every time i read your blogs i actually hear your voice in my head
In the footballing world, that’s called a mancrush..
Good job from Napoli….
Gary Neville is an idiot.
When are we going to start hearing some English speaking commentary not biased to to EPL teams?
What a joke.
Napoli are amazing. 3 at the back. 3 goals scored, should’ve been more. Beastly central midfielders in Gargano and Inler. Great fullbacks, Maggio was great. And that front 3, damn.
+De Sanctis isn’t a bad keeper either.
I wonder what Neville’s definition of ‘average’ EPL team is…a team that convincingly beats Chelsea?
Well..I mean to be fair, Chelsea’s lost to Everton, Villa, Liverpool twice, and QPR this year…
Yeah, fair enough. Chelsea really haven’t been playing up to their standards. And their back line today wasn’t 100%.
Yeah, it so annoying listening to these English commentators who know fuck all outside of the EPL. Arsenal got their asses handed to them last week and it was all because Arsenal were playing bad not because Milan are a great team (which they are). Today the whole fuckin game all you hear is that a Chelsea goal is imminent and that Napoli are an average team. well beside the goal i don’t remember any clear cut chances for Chelsea and i do remember that Cech made 2 big saves and Cole cleared another off the line.
Very refreshing that KJ and James don’t have this bias.
Exactly. There’s a clear difference between being somewhat bias towards your country/favoured club, then there’s being oblivious to the world around you.
I should point out, however, that I don’t speak Italian or Spanish and for all I know their announcers are of a similar vein.
Outside Mata’s golazo, Ramirez had quite the chance on his left foot around the edge of the box…if he realized he had much more time and he was more composed he probably would’ve done better.But aside from that lone chance…they didn’t create anything. Napoli’s defense was beast when they had to be.
I am .currently living in Italy. It is especially something unique because the media in the country is REALLY hard on their teams/players. Yes obviously we want our Italian teams to win and its natural to think you’re the best…but lets face it…here in Italy..we call a Spade a Spade. If Napoli or Milan would have lost either of their games in that manner they would have been ripped apart by the media..local and national. I watched the first half of the game in ITalian ( I live in Naples) and the 2nd half in English (once I found a good stream) and when Cannavaro made that mistake…the ITalian announcers didn’t make up excuses for him and if Napoli would have lost because of that…well…thats a whole different story all together.
Hey KJ,
I love the footy show, I love watching you guys as you are both very knowledgeable and while it’s cool that you root for England, I’ve never felt that you two were biased in your opinions of any of the games you follow, regardless of whether an english team was playing or not.
Gary Neville today should have been asked to “P” in a cup for testing. For him to say that Napoli is mid tier English Premiership Club at best was insulting. He continued by adding, that it’s easy to beat Napoli, have a man on Lavezzi and Cavani, control the wings from Maggio and Hamsik and Chelsea should win 3 or 4 to 1. With all due respect, exactly what has Chelsea done this year to deserve that type of praise? In a year where all English clubs have struggled, what have the other 9 clubs that he’s placing ahead of Napoli done either???
Spot on match report KJ. An incredibly open game on display, and I am really happy that Napoli got a deserved result.
As an AC Milan and Serie A fan, it pains me to watch the games with Gary Neville and others making some really absurd comments. Even with Milan controlling the game, the commentators continued to make comments that Arsenal were going to grab a goal. And even tonight, Neville went on and on about Chelsea having the chance to win 4-1 because the game was so open and Napoli were struggling to control Chelsea. Unless I missed something, Chelsea scored a goal off a complete fluke and had a handful of half chances, compared to Napoli where Cavani and Lavezzi were making a mockery of Chelsea all night.
It’s just frustrating to try and watch a game with such biased commentary, it might just be better to mute the TV and just read some tweets from people who actually watch Serie A and know what the hell they are talking about.
Never quite got all the hype about how conceited and oblivious people say the English always are when it comes to football. After listening to Gary Neville, I do now. Congratulations, England, for within a span of two weeks dropping out of the Champions League AND virtually guaranteeing yourselves failure at Euro. Your mediocrity is the envy of third-rate footballing nations the world over.
Gary Neville is a twat. Chelsea sucked. Enough said. Napoli was the far better team and could have won by 6-1.
This just in ….. The English football media comprises of ppl who are arrogant, ignorant and pompous.
Napoli wins and the headline comment is “Naples sees two South Americans…” WOW. If Chelsea wins next match and Drogba nets 3 goals in a 3 -nil win I wonder if the comment will be “the great Ivorian delivers”…I think not! Credit to Napoli “as a whole” for beating Chelsea.
Just saw that. Using nationality as a descriptive apparatus for two+ players should be reserved for if the players are of one nation. That’s like using the term Europeans because Ronaldo and Ozil score for Real. You’d never see it.
Think you r being v harsh there………i am sure it was just another way to describe the duo. as a writer i think thats the aim to prevent repeating yourself over and over
ace match report kj – wont find a better and more fairer one from an englishman anywhere.
I still can’t believe that the commentators felt that the tie is still in the balance 100%. For me, it’s over. I don’t see Napoli not scoring on a break AND conceding 2-3+ goals.
Funny how fast these cyclical swings in leagues turn around. Wasn’t everyone declaring Series A DOA about 11 months ago? So much for that trend, I guess they’ll be asking for their CL spot back now!
Lesson to twats like Gary Neville who can’t be bothered to view the footballing world beyond their own borders: you don’t know as much as you think you do.
Idiots were declaring it dead. Pragmatists could see beyond all the absurd hype the Bundesliga’s been getting the past few seasons, seeing as between 2001-2010 Italian teams won three Champions Leagues and made another two finals, split between three teams, whereas one single German team won one (in 2001) and lost one more. There isn’t a comparison really. It’s just that UEFA’s brilliant co-efficient system has seen Germany get an extra CL slot for a while, one year after an Italian team beat a German one in the final.
Before anyone says it, I know I know I forgot Leverkusen in 02. Whoops. Still a valid argument.
Yep, that’s really my point Dan and I approached the “series A is dead” talk with an extreme degree of cynicism.
Not only that, but consider Juventus just recently shook off their blues and aren’t factoring into all this international success. There is a perennial power that’s been sleeping for years and the league still has depth to take its place.
Leagues around the continent are much deeper than they are often given credit for.
Juve will be dangerous if they continue on the path they’re on at the moment. They’re a few players away from being world powers again.
I think I’ve officially decided to have a man-crush on Edinson Cavani.
Hey, I’ve been very critical about Serie A in the past, however, I’ll give credit where credit is due. With the exception of the German League, Serie A is the only league where at least 7 or 8 teams have a realistic shot at winning the Championship. Juve and Milan have a 7 point cushion over Lazio and Udinese, who have both struggled during the past 3 weeks. Consider Napoli hadn’t won a game in the past 2 months (until their last two games), or they would have been in the thick of things as well. Roma and Inter are in the same boat and all 3 of those teams are still in contention for a Champions league spot for next year. In Spain, Barca and Real sealed their fate months ago. England, outside of Man U and City, no one else had a realistic shot. Big props to Tottenham though. The Germans have a very competitive league as well, however, their teams just don’t seem to have the power as the other top clubs in Europe.
Anybody think KJ is being a bit too defensive about Napoli and Serie A in general just because they have the rights to the games? Sorry, but because G. Neville has an opinion about Napoli, he’s ignorant? He’s one of the best pundits in the game. Do people really think he doesn’t watch games outside England? He said NAPs defense was dodgy, and quite frankly I agree with him. Napoli is a decent side, but it’s a case of a team in amazing for versus a team who is struggling with their identity, their confidence and tactics.
KJ, I really enjoy your analysis of the game, but I think you’re taking any criticism of Napoli, Italy and Serie A a tad too personally, and sorry, @GNev2 isn’t being ‘battered’ here, I’m sure he’s faced much more adversity than a couple of negative points on a blog.
ive watched serie a for over 12-13 years now, its always been my favourite league. I can sort of see how this leagues fans can get a bit rattled up when the epl serie a comparisons come up, but i agree of the fact that we shouldnt just start swearing at leagues in general. i mean chelsea and arsenal have had bad seasons all around, and i would have rather seen man u and man city in knockouts, which wouldve been better representatives of the english game.
Ah, but what color is the sky painted blue?
Should we always put one teams success down to another’s failure? Should we talk about the glory of Chelsea when they win and their underwhelming performance of their own squad when they lose?
I think you (and Neville) have to wrap your head around that not everyone plays a stogy back four these days and sometimes those tactics work out, as they did yesterday. You might see it as defensive madness but at the end of the day it worked, and it provided Napoli with a hell of a lot more chances than it provided the visitors.
If Neville is supposed to be considered a “great pundit” it must be in the realm of the small minded.
‘Ah, but what color is the sky painted blue? ‘
eh? I miss your point, but if your calling me a blue, you’re wrong.
I don’t think their defense is suspect because they utilize 3 center
backs, It’s dodgy because of the personnel involved, which I would have expected the likes of Mata, Drogba and Sturridge to exploit. I’m not ignorant enough to believe that every club in the world use a solid back 4, hell, the best team i’ve ever seen in Barcelona use a 3421, or some sort of variant of that in most games.
Yes, it ‘worked’ because they won, but it was more down to how poor Cahill, Cole and Luiz were, once again, rather than the defensive triumphs of Napoli. Do we always pit one teams success on another’s failures? No, but in this case I think we can.
I’m sorry, but if Arsenal and Chelsea would have won these two games, we would have heard Neville talk about how great English teams are, and not saying English teams won because Milan or Napoli were playing bad. With that said, give credit where credit is due, Milan and Napoli are both superior to Arsenal and Chelsea, as proved in the pitch. We all know that this is not the Chelsea of Maurinho or Ancelotti, and we also know that this is not the Arsenal that went undefeated for a full season, therefore don’t tell me that todays Arsenal or Chelsea are better than the two Italian clubs.
Ps. What the media is saying about “Superstars” carrying their team, it works also the other way around. Its the clasic italian counterattacking play that Napoli played that gave Cavani, Lavezzi and friends the ability to show their skill. Last year there was a player named Javier Pastore who the media called a “Superstar”, and PSG payed over 45mill for him, and look at him now. Also, don’t forget that Cavani wasn’t really shining so bright at Palermo, so give credit to every one of those players, for making each other great, and winning that game.
Absolutely disgusting commentating once again by extremely bitter and ignorant Brits.
If you listened to them, you’d believe there’s no top class players outside of the EPL and the Spanish giants.
No english clubs in the final 8, and 3 of them knocked out by ‘inferior’ Italian sides.
Neville is a twat …no news there !! I hate that AVB is so busy proving he is in charge that he is ruining what little chance we had of something from this season…..Bosingwa cant catch a cold , but lets play him ahead of Englands left back….and then we hear its cos he asked for feedback and punished those who spoke with a benching…..
Whilst i hate the managierial chaos as far as I am now concerned ….. JOG ON AVB !!!!
Neville is an absolute JOKE. I turned the volume off as his ignorance was like nails on a chalk board for me. The English bias in the press is in my opinion a big contributor to the demise of English teams in this year’s top football competition. WAKE UP EPL – you are delusional! In the Champions League there is nowhere to hide, and teams that play for each other and have skill win advance. Despite the propaganda machine that Chelsea, Arsenal, Man United, Liverpool, and City enjoy – these clubs are starting to realize they are equal to many unheralded European sides in Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe. Sadly, don’t expect the English press to that acknowledge that this parity exists; according to them England is still one of the best national sides in the world.