Real beat Napoli in the second round of the Champions League

In one of the main matches of the second round of the Champions League, Real Madrid beat Napoli away – 3:2. This is the second victory of the Madrid club in Group C, where it confirms its status as a clear favorite, and the Neapolitans, apparently, will not have the easiest fight to reach the playoffs.

The match in Naples, in which the two main contenders for exiting Group C met, was, by and large, the first serious test for Napoli this season. The fact is that in the seven rounds of the Italian championship played so far, its current champions have met with outsiders or middle peasants. And the seven lost points due to the defeat from Lazio, as well as two draws, indicated that the French head coach of the Neapolitans, Rudi Garcia, had not yet achieved the game he would like to see from his players. Real, in turn, takes first place in the Spanish Championship, showing fairly effective football. In any case, a big victory over Girona, which is in the leading group, in the last round demonstrated that the team is in good condition.

Napoli opened the scoring. In the middle of the first half, a goal was scored by the Norwegian defender of the Neapolitans, Leo Estigor, with a header after a corner kick and an error made on the way out by Real goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. However, after a quarter of an hour, the visitors took the lead, both of whose goals involved 20-year-old British midfielder Jude Bellingham, acquired in the summer for big money from Borussia Dortmund (the transfer amount, according to Transfermarkt, was €103 million). First, at the right moment, he made an accurate pass to Vinicius, who sent the ball into the corner farthest from goalkeeper Alex Meret. And then he demonstrated excellent dribbling not far from the opponent’s goal and scored himself.

The second half began with a penalty against Real Madrid, which was punished for an unintentional but clear handball by Nacho in his own penalty area. The eleven-meter kick was clearly converted by Pole Piotr Zieliński. Napoli then missed a couple more chances and it was heading for a draw when a corner by 38-year-old Real Madrid veteran Luka Modric brought Federico Valverde into the spotlight. The Uruguayan delivered a magnificent strike with crazy power, and the ball, hitting the shoulder of one of the Napoli defenders, and then hitting the crossbar and Merete’s back, landed in the goal. The result is 3:2 in favor of Real. In another match in Group C, the Portuguese Braga, losing two goals away to the Berlin Union and being left with ten men, won a strong-willed victory with the same score. After two rounds, Real has 6 points, Napoli and Braga have 3 each, and Union has 0.

In Group A, Manchester United, which has been experiencing global problems since the beginning of the season, lost at home to Istanbul’s Galatasaray – 2:3, and Bayern, having bounced back, defeated Copenhagen away – 2:1. Here Bayern is in the lead with 6 points, and Galatasaray is in second place with 4 points, ahead of Copenhagen with 1 point and Manchester United, which has already suffered two defeats.

In Group B, the French Lens defeated London’s Arsenal at home – 2:1, and the Dutch PSV played a draw at home with the Spanish Sevilla – 2:2. Lens has 4 points, Arsenal has 3, Sevilla has 2, PSV has 1.

In Group D, the Spanish Real Sociedad, in the absence of Arsen Zakharyan, who remained in reserve, beat the Austrian Salzburg away – 2:0, and Inter Milan beat the Lisbon Benfica at home – 1:0. In this group, at the moment, three clubs are actually vying for the first two places – Real Sociedad and Inter, with 4 points each, as well as Salzburg with 3 points, while Benfica, which last season reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League, so far it has two losses.

Evgeniy Fedyakov