In the Zone: Napoli 2-3 Real Madrid performance analysis

Real Madrid delivered one of the outstanding performances of Matchday 2 when they ended Napoli's 13-match unbeaten home run in the UEFA Champions League with a 3-2 success at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

In this article brought to you by Fedex, UEFA technical observer Ole Gunnar Solskjær picks out three talking points from the Group C contest.

Formations

Bellingham's impact

Jude Bellingham was the outstanding player, both on and off the ball, for several reasons. He has enjoyed a fantastic start at Real Madrid and in the first half he was his team's key player, not just offensively but defensively too, where he helped Madrid to defend across the pitch. They play a narrow diamond while Napoli's threats were down the side so Bellingham came across to alleviate that threat.

Moreover, Bellingham continually ran in behind the Napoli midfielders and defenders, offering himself to receive the ball. We can see that in the first clip of the video below, where he first gets into a position to receive a pass, gets over his frustration at not getting it and then closes the space to intercept and win the ball back – this despite the blue shirts around him. He then sets up Vinícius Júnior to score, making it all look so simple.

It is telling how Bellingham always scans the space around him and the way he interchanges with Vinícius Júnior in Clip 2 shows how that pair can work together to cause confusion. Napoli's players are wondering who to mark and where to go.

Bellingham's energy impressed me too – he runs non-stop and is always willing to take the ball. The goal he scored (Clip 3) offers the best example of his game. First, he makes a run towards the space behind Napoli's defensive line, stretching them. Madrid decide to retain possession at this point, with Eduardo Camavinga passing the ball backwards rather than to Bellingham.

Yet because he has stretched them, he is then able to drop back into clear space in the centre of the pitch.

He looks forward, he looks back, he knows where he can go. He is now in a perfect position to get the ball from Camavinga and drive forward, and shows the strength, speed and skill to evade five Napoli players before shooting low and hard into the corner. And he does not take four or five steps to set himself up for a shot, but does it all with one movement. It is exceptional finishing.

I must also say that he missed a good opportunity in the second half, but he had the intelligence to be in the right position to take it which was further evidence of his impressive ability, as a midfielder, to sniff out chances.

Real Madrid's quality in possession

In the first half especially, Madrid had long sequences of possession of a really high quality. They played with confidence and no fear, and just wanted the ball all the time. Carlo Ancelotti wants his teams to be confident and they certainly look it. This is what you expect from a top Real Madrid side as they moved the ball quickly, finding pockets of space, and Napoli had their work cut out trying to stop them.

Throughout the first half, Madrid forced the Italian side to run and move into positions they did not want to because they were too stretched. Napoli played a 4-3-3 with the central midfielders moving up in the press but the wingers having to drop with the full-backs. As shown in Clip 2 of the video below, it left Stanislav Lobotka, the central player in the midfield three, on his own and Madrid exploited this in the first half.

Madrid's midfielders – Toni Kroos, Federico Valverde, Bellingham and Aurélien Tchouameni – rotated constantly, trying to shift Napoli's defensive block and receive the ball in effective areas. Camavinga, the left-back, got up there too which meant they dominated.

This is all clear from the passages of play I have chosen for this second video. And remember that Madrid are doing this in one of football's loudest, most atmospheric stadiums – a challenge for any visitor. I say that from my experience as a neutral there last season when I watched Napoli against AC Milan with my children. It was an incredible atmosphere.

On several occasions, Madrid's midfielders interchanged positions to leave Kroos in the quarter-back position, drawing from his wonderful range of passes. Camavinga came inside into a pivot position, often winning the ball back quickly and helping dictate the play (Clips 1 and 2). As for Bellingham and Valverde, they operated in the spaces between the lines in front of the back four. Dani Carvajal went high and wide on the right; Vinícius Júnior went left and looked to take players on every time he got the ball.

These kinds of rotations allowed Madrid to manipulate the game scenario and, in the first half in particular, Napoli struggled to cope as their visitors' formation shifted. As the video shows, at times it became a 2-3-5 as they got players forward in search of goals. Few teams have the ability to score three at the home of the Italian champions but Madrid do – and they did just that.

Napoli adapt to regain compactness

It would be wrong to focus only on Madrid – Napoli coach Rudi Garcia deserves praise too, especially for the changes he made in the second half when his team were far more compact and solid defensively. In the first half, Lobotka looked a little isolated at times. When André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Piotr Zieliński tried to press Kroos, Camavinga and Tchouameni in Madrid's build-up, this left Lobotka on his own, usually against Bellingham and Valverde.

In the second half Napoli were more compact, with Zambo Anguissa and Lobotka centrally screening ahead of their centre-backs. And where their average width across the pitch had been 29.7m in the first period, now it was 24.1m. The first clip in the video below illustrates this by showing their tight shape across the pitch.

Having trailed 2-1 at half-time, Napoli came out a different team, equalising through Zieleński. They dominated possession and Zieleński and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia were key threats both in creating chances and in one-on-one situations. They were calmer and more composed on the ball too, and you need that in big games. Napoli's centre-backs, Natan and Leo Østigård, were also better at stepping into midfield and closing down Bellingham, Valverde and Vinícius Júnior (Clip 2) and, in doing so, they prevented Madrid from retaining possession in the hosts' defensive third.

Overall, possession was equal between the teams and shots too (18 each). Madrid's first-half dominance was something Napoli had to respond to and they did, only to lose out to a late own goal.