Ancelotti’s reverse Istanbul ends with a freak goal
In recent years Serie A has been a two horse race. Dominated by Juventus and Napoli, with the former usually edging it in the second half of the season. Maurizio Sarri’s 91 points was the closest an Italian team has pushed The Old Lady towards a title race.
This year it’s slightly different, Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli have re-enforced their squad heavily filling the voids where there were apparent weaknesses. Signing Hirving Lozano, Kostas Manolas, Fernando Llorente and more.
In Milan, Antonio Conte’s return has definitely brought happiness into the soul of a certain Antonio Candreva, who excelled under the Italian manager during his tenure with the national team. More importantly, it brought hope to the Inter board and fans. Big names were also added such as Romelu Lukaku, Diego Godin, and a season long loan of Alexis Sanchez.
Candreva’s time with Conte has been a match made in heaven because of Conte’s inclination to play a back three, and Candreva’s understanding of the wing back role. Other than the names mentioned above Inter have signed promising Italian youngsters in Stefano Sensi, Nicolo Barella, and Cristiano Biraghi — all on loan, Sensi and Biraghi with an option to buy and Barella with an obligation to buy. The common theme between these players, other than impressing and being Italian is that they all suit Conte’s back three systems in all their variations.
Juventus have also added a list of players to their already brilliant squad. The signing that has grabbed the headline though was Sarri’s return to Italy. To Turin in particular. After giving them the finger when arriving for Napoli’s away game to the Allianz Stadium in 2018, he is now their manager.
The competition looks like a three horse race this season rather than none. In the second week Napoli traveled to Turin to face Juventus. Giovanni Martusciello replaced Sarri again on the touchline, after Juve’s manager was diagnosed with pneumonia a couple of weeks ago.
Juve started in a 4–3–3/4–4–2 shape similar to France’s during the last World Cup where they triumphed. Cristiano Ronaldo started on the left of the front three but was more centrally nearer to Gonzalo Higuain. Filling that space on the left was Blaise Matuidi, who drifted to the left side from midfield. A role which he executes on the highest level and probably is his trademark role.
Ancelotti meanwhile, played in a complex hybrid system. 4–4–1–1 without the ball, and morphing into a 3–4–2–1 once they have possession. Faouzi Ghoulam pushing forward to play as a left wing back, as Lorenzo Insigne moves inside.
Napoli’s idea was to attack Juve using a wing back-creator combo. Fabian Ruiz and Jose Callejon on the right, and Insigne and Ghoulam on the left. Enabling the wing back to over lap, or the creative player to create from the channels. Napoli’s earliest threat came after Fabian dropped between Alex Sandro and Matuidi to collect the ball then switching it to the left side. Ghoulam who received the pass played it to Insigne with a one touch pass into the space between Juve’s center back and the right back. Ancelotti’s ideas were in place and Insigne played it back to Allan on the edge of the penalty box. Allan’s well struck shot was saved by Wojciech Szczesny denying Napoli from an opener that exhibited their idea of attacking Juve’s defence.
Before the corner was taken, Mattia De Sciglio was replaced by Danilo due to injury. Twenty-nine seconds after, Danilo opened the scoring for Juve on a speedy counter featuring him and Douglas Costa.
Juve on the other hand, had a simple yet effective plan. Midfield runners from midfield in Matuidi and Sami Khedira, either coming late into the box or making penetrating runs when the forwards drop. It was evident from early on that Juve’s left side would cause a headache for Napoli, especially Matuidi. His run in the left channel attracted Manolas leaving space for Ronaldo to attack. The Frenchman’s pass put Ronaldo in a good position to strike in the 3rd minute, but Alex Meret’s good positioning made it an ordinary save for the keeper.
Matuidi caused frequent damage, this time it was lethal. With Ronaldo out wide in the wing area Matuidi sneaked past Napoli’s midfield, and positioned himself in the left channel between Napoli’s defence and their midfield. Alex Sandro found Matuidi, who then connected the ball to Higuain inside the box. The striker received the ball with his back to goal, rotated 180 degrees and did a football version of a pump-fake to totally freeze Kalidou Koulibaly. Then eventually, smashing it into the top corner. A throw-back to 36 league goals a season Higuain.
Matuidi’s danger continued throughout the first hour of the game, and he was joined by his partner in crime Khedira. Matuidi complemented Ronaldo’s movements, covering the left side when the latter was central, and running in behind when the Portuguese dropped deep to link play — a feature that Ronaldo has excelled in since his move to Juventus.
In a similar situation to the first goal Matuidi was behind Napoli’s midfield, squared the ball to Higuain who this time squared it for an onrushing midfielder. That would be Khedira. Had Khedira scored, the goal would have been the perfect example of Juve’s offensive strategy on the day, but he finished it poorly shooting at Meret.
Minutes after, Ronaldo linked Pjanic’s ball to an advancing Khedira who was now Juve’s furthest player up the pitch with Ronaldo and Higuain behind him. Khedira slowed down, turned and hit the crossbar with a beautifully struck shot.
Just before half time in a similar fashion Ronaldo dropped to the left wing and furthest forward were Matuidi in the left channel running behind Giovanni Di Lorenzo, and Khedira who was now in a center forward position inside the box. Matuidi’s eventual cross was cleared by Ghoulam, preventing a darting Ronaldo from making it 3–0.
As summarized above, Napoli were penetrated multiple times and their defence endured a tough first half. Offensively, Ancelotti wanted to provide more control and build up in midfield so he switched Fabian Ruiz and Piotr Zielinski’s positions, putting Fabian on the left of Allan with the Brazilian moving to the right. The switch was also to enable Insigne and Ghoulam in terms of doubling up against Danilo. They couldn’t though as Douglas Costa tracked back religiously to support Danilo to the extent of moving inside to defend against Insigne in-front of the box.
Ancelotti kept the same hybrid shape in the second half but tweaked small details that eventually made the difference. Bringing on Mario Rui and Lozano for Ghoulam and Insigne respectively, and moving Zielinski to the left channel while Lozano occupied the right.
Instead of being positioned on the left wing and drifting inside like Insigne in the first half, Zielinski was now positioned in the left channel seeking to combine with Rui and the midfield. In addition to that he was constantly running between Danilo and Leonardo Bonucci. The tweaks clicked off from the beginning of the half and Koulibaly found Zielinski twice in that space with two direct vertical passes. First one saw the Pole shooting with his left foot, a shot that didn’t disturb his fellow Pole Szczesny. The other was more dangerous, once Zielinski received the ball in the left channel he drifted inside towards the center while Dries Mertens simultaneously moved to the left channel away from Bonucci. Zielinski passed it to Mertens, and the little wizard adjusted himself before blasting a shot towards Szczesny, who tipped it over the bar.
Napoli’s early half chances in the second half were promising but they were set back by yet again a goal from Juve’s left side. You guessed it, it was Matuidi again. Near the touchline the Frenchman attracted Di Lorenzo vacating a gap between him and Manolas. Douglas Costa sprinted into that area then played a diagonal cut back to Ronaldo, who put it past Meret for the 3–0.
It wasn’t over though, minutes after Juve’s third goal Allan played Zielinski in the left channel where he was fouled. A free-kick through which Napoli scored their first goal by Manolas.
The introduction of Lozano next to Mertens and Zielinski added pace and trickery from the right side where Zielinski and Fabian Ruiz didn’t add that much in the first half. Lozano attacked the space both sides of Matthijs de Ligt confusing Juve’s defence by his unpredictable runs and movements on and off the ball.
Napoli’s second goal consisted of both their 2nd half best performers combining. Zielinski ran into the space Danilo left empty as he was attracted to the advancing Mario Rui. The ball reached Zielinski with no marking applied as Bonucci was covering Mertens. Zielinski now on the left wing played a low cross for a darting Lozano, who flew past de Ligt to put it into the net. It was Zielinski’s movements into space added to Lozano’s pace and unpredictability that gave Napoli their second goal, and hope to get anything from this game.
de Ligt couldn’t cope with Lozano’s explosiveness, and the Mexican was close to equalize in the 76th minute but he narrowly missed Mario Rui’s cross after tricking de Ligt by going outside then inside in the last minute. Juve’s solution to the apparent Lozano problem was to foul him. Even that didn’t work for Juve as from a free-kick on Lozano Napoli managed to finally get a well deserved equalizer through Di Lorenzo.
Up till that moment it was a reverse Istanbul for Ancelotti in Turin. Half time system tweak, 3–0 down and a 3–3 comeback. However, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, or in this case the Old Lady sings. In one of the oddest goals that’ll be scored this season, Koulibaly turned a Juve free-kick into his own top corner. A freak goal that denied Napoli from a point they deserved.
Ancelotti’s complex hybrid systems was initially halted by Juventus but with some tweaks it worked wonders. Lozano showed in the second fourty-five minutes that he’ll be quite the addition to this Napoli team. With all the talk about plan B and C using Arkadiusz Milik and Llorente, it looks like there could be another plan using a dynamic front four. The three wizards and the new speedster.
Napoli might be all flashy, tricks, megs and skills but effectiveness always pays off. Juve’s effective players in Matuidi and Khedira have been often under-looked, but their consistency and utilization in games like these once again show their importance to the Italian champions.
