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Insigne and Zuniga take advantage of Grosskreutz playing out of Position
Much of the talk leading up to the game was regarding which team had the weaker defensive midfield. Inler and Behrami or Sahin and Bender? When I asked this to a friend of mine, he instantly tweeted, Insigne and Zuniga vs. Grosskreutz, that’s all. As it turned out, he couldn’t have been more right!
Juan Zuniga: Action Areas via squawka.com
After the restart, there was only one way traffic if we look at the left side of the field. Insigne and Zuniga terrorised the 25 year old German, so much so that had Napoli not been so profligate in front of goal, Dortmund would have had a hiding. As can be seen from the action map, Zuniga, along with Insigne, pressed hard, meaning Bender and Sahin couldn’t move up front even with ten men. Mats Hummels was substituted in the break as he twisted his ankle, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came on, meaning Bender had to play centre back.
As a result, this led to a snowball effect. Marek Hamsik, with his probing forays, put off the defence much like Higuain, who had zipped past and cut across Subotic and Hummels in the first half with his intelligent movement off the ball.
Maggio had a great game personally coming up against Schmelzer, beating him time and again with his pace and his delightful understanding with Inler, who picked the Italian time and time again with his delightful diagonal balls from the centre of midfield(as shown in Tactics Board). Moreover, Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan having shockers helped the Partenopei cause.
The white ovals represent unmarked spaces which Napoli utilised to great effect. This will also give a fair bit of an understanding on how Napoli won the free kick and Insigne capped his first Champions League performance with an outstanding free kick. A 30 yard pile-driver beyond the helpless stand-in goalkeeper Langerak gave Napoli a 2-0 lead.
Dortmund try to come back with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as outlet
Dortmund came into the second half with Aubameyang in place of Hummels, thus shifting Bender to centre back alongside Subotic. The German made a couple of important headers, along with a fair number of clearances to retain possession and provide his team with Aubameyang as the outlet.
The Gabon international did manage to cut Zuniga later on in the game with his pace, but he was quite unlucky hitting the cross bar with a wonder strike.
Aubameyang Passes via squawka.com
With a workhorse mentality, he had the Napoli defence holding its breath for quite some time in the latter half of the match, but with ten men, that’s always going to be difficult.
Indeed, he made Zuniga commit a silly error that gave Dortmund a glimpse of coming back, but Napoli held on for a famous victory that might just prove Rafa Benitez’s tactical acumen was perhaps the better of the two managers. For Dortmund, its back to square one and the tactical drawing board, while Napoli can rejoice their win over last year’s beaten finalists.
