Real Madrid registered a crucial win at Naples

Real Madrid recorded a crucial 3-2 away win against Napoli on Tuesday night in their second Champions League group game of the season at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples.

Los Blancos had an almost perfect start after just five minutes. Rodrygo’s shot was headed home by Jude Bellingham, but the Brazilian’s shot was powerful but went wide, and was confidently parried by Alex Merrett.
After this mistake, the host team entered the match and took the lead after a small half-chance.

Kepa caused chaos with a shot into the inside corner, and the ball was deflected away by Kepa, who jumped out, but the Spanish goalkeeper missed it completely. Victor Osimhen scored with a header, and although his shot hit the crossbar, Ostigard headed the rebound into the net.
However, the home side’s joy was short-lived as Vinicius equalized in the 26th minute. Bellingham patiently waited for the opponent’s pressure before passing to the Brazilian, who smashed the ball into the goal from an angle to make it 1-1.

Then in the 34th minute, Bellingham won the ball near the halfway line, broke through the Napoli defense and fired a shot into the far corner past a helpless Meret. Napoli almost equalized five minutes before half-time, but Kepa made up for his mistake with a good save as Osimhen headed home from Politano’s great cross.
Madrid looked in control in the first half, but things quickly changed after the game ended when Osimhen’s cross hit Nacho’s hand. VAR advised the referee to check the monitor and a penalty was awarded.

Piotr Zielinski took charge and smashed the ball hard and flat over the post and into the goal to make it 2-2.
Napoli almost took the lead in the 56th minute when Kvicha Kvaratscheria broke in from the left and fired a powerful shot towards the goal from long range, albeit just outside the net.

In the 74th minute, Real Madrid almost scored again, Vinicius struck towards goal from the edge of the box but was denied by Meret. The rebound fell to Bellingham but his header went out for a goal kick.

Few minutes later Luka Modric took the corner kick which was cleared but fell to Valverde who took a ferocious shot onto the crossbar, which bounced back off Meret and went into the goalpost.

Real Madrid used their experience to close the game from there on and went on top of the group.