UEFA Champions League 2017/18: Manchester City 2-1 Napoli, 5 talking points

#2 Napoli took too much time to grow into the game

The first real chance for Napoli came in the 34th minute when Insigne served a curving ball from the left into the 6-yard box but Mertens couldn't get to the end of it. They still hadn't registered a shot on target at that point.

They enjoyed a brief spell of possession after that and Kyle Walker's delinquency won them a penalty. Mertens botched the chance to pull one back on Pep's men as Ederson saved his spot-kick.

Napoli got better in the second half and with some precise passing, they started working the flanks as City started sitting deeper. As a result, Walker and Delph had to provide cover and this hampered City's chances going forward.

But Manchester City's attack is often ruthless as evidenced by their ridiculous scoring rate and unless you grab the game by the scruff of its neck in the first quarter of 90 minutes, bad news is almost certain to follow.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

Know More

Edited by Shambhu Ajith