Villarreal come out on top at the Estadio de la Cerámica
Napoli fell to a defeat away in Spain on Matchday 2 of the Champions League, with Villarreal mounting a comeback to claim a 3-1 victory.
The Azzurri got off to a bright start and took an early lead after less than 10 minutes. The instigator of the move was Amir Rrahmani, who surged down the flank and whipped a cross in, which was met by Billy Gilmour. The Scot then tapped in after his first attempt hit the bar.
The lead was to be short lived, however - Georges Mikautadze equalised midway through the first half, before Santiago Mourino put his side into the lead.
In the second half, Napoli came close to equalising after a driving run by Rasmus Hojlund, but Tani Oluwaseyi sealed the deal late on for the hosts, making it 3-1.
Here’s our coach Massimiliano Allegri’s post-match reaction:
"That’s how Champions League matches go - every mistake gets punished. After the equaliser we messed up when playing the ball out from the back, and they scored their second goal. We need to reflect on this because we’ve got a quality team, but we can't afford to suddenly fall apart.
"Yes, you can lose matches, especially at this level, but not in the way we did tonight. We made a lot of mistakes, but more than anything else, the team became too stretched as the game went on. We tried to make things happen through individual efforts.
"We had chances to equalise, but we left too much space. You need to have patience, especially when playing in the Champions League. Tonight we lacked focus, especially in defence. It takes sacrifice even when we don't have the ball, yet we lost our shape as the game went on."
Matteo Politano delivered his verdict on Napoli’s performance:
"First of all, I’m deeply frustrated at myself and really sorry for my mistake. I’m taking responsibility for it and I apologise to the fans as well. Unfortunately, things went wrong, and we’re really gutted because we’d managed to take the lead.
"We had other big chances that we should have made the most of. In the second half, we became too stretched and disjointed. We made a lot of poor decisions, especially after the break. Villarreal were much more cohesive than we were. We need to rediscover our team spirit and stick together. In times like these, we have to pull together as much as possible in order to bounce back as quickly as possible."
Villarreal 3-1 Napoli (HT 2-1)
Scorers: Rrahmani 8, Mikautadze 23, Mourino 26, Oluwaseyi 86
VILLARREAL: Junior; Mourino, Pau Navarro, Renato Veiga, Carlos Romero; Comesana (Perez 84), Pape Gueye (Cardona 84), Saliba, Moleiro (Foyth 84), Moreno, (Oluwaseyi 66), Mikautadze (Freeman 66).
Coach: Inigo Perez
NAPOLI: Milinkovic-Savic; Rafa Marin (Lucca 62), Rrahmani, Badiashile; Politano (Neres 60), De Bruyne, Gilmour (Lobotka 72), McTominay (Spinazzola 60), Di Lorenzo; Giovane (Noa Lang 60), Hojlund.
Coach: Allegri.
Referee: Siebert (Germany)
Booked: Mikautadze, Giovane, De Bruyne, Di Lorenzo
