Beautiful Night in Naples

by Gae Guarducci

On Tuesday February 21^st, new comers Napoli faced English Premier League giants FC Chelsea in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League. Napoli, a team from Naples, Italy, although doing just fine in the Serie A, standing in sixth place behind Roma, they are one of those teams that does in the international leagues such as this one. They were put in the same group as German champions FC Bayern Munich, English powerhouse Manchester City, and Spanish third placed Villareal. Out of the six games they played (one home and one away) Napoli won 3, tied 2 and lost 1, finishing in second place behind FC Bayern Munich. They greatest win since the times when Maradona played for them was against Manchester City, winning 2-1 at home.

Chelsea, is also a team that is doing better in Europe than in the domestic league standing in fifth place, which for them is very below expectation, but coming out first in their group (even though they were the best team in it by far).

The match took place in Naples on a rainy evening. The fans were going crazy even before the game. When the match began, the Napoli fans would cheer on every occasion they had possession of the ball, and “boo” every time Chelsea did.

Napoli maintained very good possession in the starting 20 minutes, creating several opportunities to score while Chelsea still didn’t have one shot. After twenty-eight minutes, Juan Mata for Chelsea picked up a loose ball in the Napoli box and finished it neatly into the bottom left corner. The stadium went quite. Chelsea celebrated nonetheless. It was 1-0 for the visitors until the 35^th minute, when Lavezzi played a neat 1-2 pass with teammate Cavani, and took a low accurate shot into the bottom right corner. Chelsea’s goalkeeper Cech had no chance of reaching it. The fans went crazy. Although it was only the goal to tie the game up, it was a very big deal for Napoli. A couple of minutes before half time, Napoli center mid, Inler put in a cross towards the center of the box and Cavani headed it beautifully into the upper side of the net to make it 2-1 and put Napoli in the lead.

The two sides went into half time, one ecstatic about the outcome of the last eight minutes of play, and the other in deep thought of what had just happened.

Chelsea came onto the field with one objective, score another away goal and defend for the rest of the game. Unfortunately for them and their coach Andre Villas-Boas, who already is at risk of getting sacked, Napoli’s Lavezzi curled in another shot to make it 3-1 in the 65^th minute, and the game ended shortly after. It was a beautiful night in Naples.

Napoli will be flying to London in a couple of weeks to face them at their home defending a 3-1 lead on aggregate, while Chelsea will be going back the following day, thinking about what they will do for these next couple of weeks.