Napoli: Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos performed another rescue act to wreck Napoli’s brave comeback attempt and take the Champions League title-holders into the quarterfinals at the San Paolo Stadium here Tuesday, after they had taken a first-half battering.
Napoli, trailing 1-3 from the first leg of the round of 16 tie, looked more than capable of overturning the deficit as they dominated the first half and took the lead through Dries Mertens.
But with the visitors wobbling, Ramos popped up to head an equaliser early in the second half and he produced another header six minutes later which deflected off Mertens and into the net. Substitute Alvaro Morata added another in added on time against the deflated opponents to give Madrid a 3-1 win that sent them into their seventh successive Champions League quarterfinal by a deceptive 6-2 aggregate score.
“We did really well for the first 45 minutes but the two goals early in the second half took the wind out of our sails,” said Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri.
Backed by a fervent crowd, Napoli made a fast and furious start and peppered the Real Madrid goal with shots in the opening 10 minutes. With both Pepe and Marcello being short on pace, the Napoli attackers created numerous opportunities with quick, clever angled passing and superb running off the ball.
One such move produced their opening goal when inspirational captain Marek Hamsik laid a perfectly-weighted first-time pass into the path of Mertens who lost his marker Pepe and placed his shot wide of Keylor Navas.
Real Madrid had a chance to equalise when Karim Benzema’s pass sent Cristiano Ronaldo sprinting between the Napoli defenders and past Pepe Reina but the Portuguese forward fired his shot against the foot of the post.
The hosts however, failed to begin the second half with the same intensity. They quickly paid the price after Hamsik uncharacteristically gave the ball away in midfield.
The move ended with Real Madrid winning a corner which Toni Kroos delivered perfectly for Ramos to rise above the Napoli defence and head the ball in to silence the crowd in the 51st minute.
Six minutes later, Ramos struck again from another corner, although this time the ball took a deflection of Mertens and UEFA awarded an own goal against the Belgian.
Faced with a hopeless task, Napoli completely lost their momentum and Real Madrid coasted through the rest of the game, Morata snapping up a rebound for the third goal.
Reuters
