Despite all of that, Chelsea still entered this game as the favorites. The Blues at least had experienced veterans they could call on, many of whom had played in 2008 Champions League final. They were playing a team in its first Champions League campaign. That alone gives Chelsea an advantage. This Napoli team had the makings of a superb squad but it wouldn't realize that potential for another few years and managers. All the same, Chelsea took a beating square on the chin here, in the first leg of the Round of 16.
Summary
Chelsea opened in a 4-2-3-1 formation. I'll talk more about the profound flaws in the lineup and tactics, but just off the bat AVB got this wrong. To his credit, John Terry was supposed to play in the match but he picked up a knock hours before. I'm not sure how much Terry could've helped against Napoli's destructive counter-attacks, but at least Chelsea would've had it's captain. The other failures are on the manager. Villas Boas dropped Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres, three experienced and talented players who could've really bolstered the squad during this match. The irony is that both Cole and Lampard would later sub on, and both performed substantially better than the players they replaced.
Napoli trotted out it's then-trademark 3-4-3. While the formation would make a wider comeback later in the decade after Antonio Conte popularized it (ironically with Chelsea), it hadn't been seen in soccer for a while. This of course leads Gary Neville to oogle over it in generic football man cliches on the broadcast: "I've played against it, and it can be tough to defend." Great analysis Gary!
The defense and midfield are a little spotty (Inler's passing from central midfield is amazing), but what really makes this shine is Napoli's front three. The Lavezzi-Cavani-Hamsik trio is absolutely devastating. Their athleticism, physicality and relentless pressure is really reminiscent of a high-end pressing basketball team. Lavezzi and Cavani really shine tonight, but Hamsik's passing holds the team and front line together in an understated way.
That front three tears Chelsea apart front the start. Within the first fifteen minutes Lavezzi and Cavani both have had excellent chances (Cavani wiffed his, Cech pulled out some great saves on the rest).
Chelsea faced three main problems. First, the tactics and formation are all wrong. Napoli's front three play tight, with the two wingers roaming the half-spaces. Chelsea really doesn't cover those lanes at all: the fullbacks are too wide, the midfield pivot just sort of drifts around and the central defenders are too focused on Cavani.
The second problem is more important. Chelsea simply doesn't have the personnel to keep up, especially with Lavezzi. Ivanovic gets stuck in 1v1 situations with Lavezzi far too often (partly because Daniel Sturridge refuses to track back and help), and Lavezzi burns him time and time again. Ivanovic will go on to be a key player in this run (and for the next few years), but this was one of his low points.
After the first fifteen minutes Chelsea are able to settle down a little more. They get control of the ball but really struggle to create any meaningful chances. Napoli does a good job of focusing on shutting down Mata, who was clearly the only playmaker Chelsea had, and then was pretty happy to let the Blues boot the ball down to Drogba.
Chelsea miraculously takes the lead just before the half-hour, when Paolo Cannavaro botches an easy clearance and Mata puts the loose ball home. After that Chelsea seems like they could hold on until halftime, but then the floodgates open. Lavezzi grabs a loose ball and curls a beautiful shot home from outside the box on 39 minutes. Chelsea left Lavezzi wide open at the edge of the box, with both of the defensive pivot failing to close him down.
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| Anybody want to try to get near the shooter? |
Napoli take the lead in first half stoppage time on a beautiful cross from Inler and finish from Cavani (his fifth goal in seven CL matches that year; this one looked preeeeettttyyy close to a handball). After the break Chelsea get nothing going, and Lavezzi puts the game away just after the hour mark. Napoli almost make it 4-1 late in the match, but Cole clears the ball off the line: Roberto Di Matteo would later call that clearance "the most important moment in our Champions League campaign." If Cole hadn't saved that goal, Chelsea would have had to score four, instead of three, in the reverse leg. Even in a stretch full of heroics, that would've been a bridge too far.
MVP
Lavezzi is the clear MVP of this match. He dominates Chelsea's backline from the start, scoring two goals and almost finishing off a couple more. His dribbling on the counter and cut-ins from the wing warped Chelsea's defense to the point where it really couldn't hold.
What's aged the best?
There are a few potential choices here (see honorable mentions below), but I think the clear answer is this Napoli team. Aggressive, physical and impossible to handle. Although they finished fifth in Serie A this season, they defeated Juventus to claim the Coppa Italia. After spending the next few years in a state of unrealized potential, they hired Maurizio Sarri and start challenging Juventus for supremacy in Italy. After watching a season of stale Sarri-ball at Chelsea, I hypothesize that the reason his system worked so well at Napoli is because the remnants of the 2011-12 team gave it an edge and belligerence. Anyways, this team was super fun and full of hidden-gem players that you only saw in the Champions League or during summer international competitions. Plus they were sooo much fun to play with on FIFA.
Honorable mention 1: Chelsea's away kit
Honorable mention 2: the commentary team
While I did make fun of Gary Neville earlier, the Martin Tyler-Neville team is really excellent and will be a part of this whole run. Their calls of the matches are a (usually) solid mix of analysis and excitement. They're the odd commentary team that aren't a complete pain.
What's aged the worst?
Andre Villas Boas. Just, the whole AVB experience. He survives a week after this game, but after losing 1-0 to West Brom Abramovich sacks him. After that he goes to Tottenham, which actually might be his greatest failure. At Spurs he tried again to do his same aggressive high line pressing defense, and again fails miserably. The really sad thing (for him) is that Spurs say, "Hey, we like that idea we just think that we can get somebody better to implement." So they go hire Mauricio Pochettino (with a brief Tim Sherwood appearance first), who does everything AVB wanted to do and does it better.
To be completely fair to AVB, the problems that he struggled with as Chelsea manager are mostly the same ones that every other Chelsea manager struggles with that decade. The defense lacks the speed and skill to keep up with attackers, and Chelsea's attacking talent doesn't quite fit together (although he doesn't even have the benefit of Hazard's brilliance).
He still could've done better. For starters, a good manager would've stopped trying to impose a system on the team that clearly couldn't work and instead lean into the team's strengths. Chelsea had the makings of an excellent defensive team that would generate offense through long balls to Drogba or by letting Mata and Torres dribble. They also had lots of experience and leadership in the likes of Terry, Lampard, Cole, etc. Instead of pushing those players (literally) to the margins, AVB could have empowered them (as Di Matteo would do) and maybe been able to put together a competent squad.
Best goal
Lavezzi's first goal is a beauty. It's a perfect mid-height curler that rolls along the side netting into the back of the goal. There's something so hypnotic in how perfectly he struck that ball: just the right amount of power and curl to put it in the one spot Cech could never get at. It's like a perfect back-shoulder fade from a quarterback: maybe it looks like the cornerback could've gotten the ball, but he really couldn't have.
What happened to that guy?
For this week's installment, let's take a look at Jose Bosingwa. The Portuguese fullback came to Chelsea in 2008 from Porto (for a tidy £16 million). Aside from the 2009-10 season, he notched at least 20 appearances in each of his years at the club. He was a solid rotation player, and not much more. But he's also instantly recognizable, partly by association with a certain period of Chelsea's history and partly because he has original claim on being called "The Brow."
His post-Chelsea career is...divisive. Jose leaves the Blues for QPR, a move which attracted a fair amount of ire from Chelsea fans. But after just a year he leaves the club for Turkey, finishing his career with three seasons at Trabzonspor and a few more international call-ups.
Since then he's effectively dropped off the radar: basic Google searches yield nothing but stat pages and decade-old articles. I suppose that could be a good thing. Many players retire and then cause enough trouble to fill a tabloid, so maybe Bosingwa is keeping his head down and living large off his well-earned money.
Or...I mean, who just fully drops off the face of the earth after a 15-year sports career? He has no discernible social media presence as far as I can tell, which is strange in and of itself, and apparently hasn't popped up in any commentary booth or talk show anywhere. That's a little strange. Jose, you doing ok man?
Next week, we hit on the first great match and comeback of this run.
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