No soccer miracles in Madrid and Naples – Benzema seals Liverpool’s fate

Matches are tapped out nicely

Little to report from Madrid and Naples. Real and Napoli were just much better than their opponents Liverpool and Eintracht Frankfurt.

Both duels will be played out calmly. At Real Madrid, they must already be thinking about Sunday’s El Clásico.

REA-LIV | 65′ Real supreme

Real is firmly in control. The Madrilenians leisurely tap the ball around, Liverpool running after it.

In the second half, it was a breeze for Real to contain Liverpool.

REA-LIV | 52′ Huge opportunity for Valverde

Valverde goes at Becker alone, should score, but doesn’t. His effort was too weak. Moments later, Liverpool had a good counter chance, but Salah poorly played in Núñez.

NAP-EIN | 45′ Goal Napoli!

It’s 1-0 for Napoli. Politano crosses, then goal scoring machine Osimhen heads in beautifully. Especially beautiful was his tremendously high jump to get to the ball.

Eintracht must now make at least three….

REA-LIV | 36′ Shot Gakpo

Gakpo pops at goal from about 20 yards, but Courtois is able to save. Liverpool is on a strong phase.

Just now Courtois also had to save on a shot by Núñez.

NAP-EIN | 26′ Eintracht looks for opening

Every now and then Eintracht Frankfurt plays really clever soccer through Napoli, but the final pass is still missing (that’s cliché, but true).

Napoli had a nice chance about five minutes in, when Georgian dribbling champion Kvaratskhelia slalomed toward goal. His shot, however, was moderate.

REA-LIV | 19′ Camavinga hits the crossbar

A nice shot by Camavinga ends up on the crossbar over Becker. The young French midfielder was often at left back in recent weeks, but may once again start in his favorite spot at “six.

There he is completely at ease in the first twenty minutes of this match.

REA-LIV | 15′ Exciting Opening Stage

It’s certainly not dull, in the first quarter of an hour at the Bernabéu. Real is slightly more dominant on the ball, but with the speed of Gakpo, Núñez and Salah, Liverpool is also dangerous.

For coach Jürgen Klopp’s team, of course, it is a pity that it failed to score a lightning-fast goal to keep sight of brushing away the 5-2 defeat at Anfield.

REA-LIV | 6′ Chance for Liverpool

In the first minutes Real Madrid attacked, but the first chance is for Liverpool. After sloppy ball loss, the ball reaches Salah, who serves Núñez.

The Uruguayan striker shoots against Courtois.

A quick look at tomorrow, when Feyenoord plays against Shakhtar

There is almost nothing but talk in Rotterdam about Sunday’s Klassieker against Ajax, but first the Rotterdammers have to play in the Europa League eighth finals on Thursday: Shakhtar Donetsk awaits at home in De Kuip. And that is by no means a snack either.

Last week Feyenoord played a great game against the Ukrainians, but narrowly edged out a 1-1 draw.

“It was one of our best games in recent times,” coach Arne Slot looked back on Wednesday afternoon. “The boys did almost everything well: putting pressure, building up, it might have been a little better with exploiting chances. The only flaw was defending in standard situations, because that’s where the goal against fell from.”

Bas Nijhuis is in plaster

Referee Bas Nijhuis is out for a while with a fracture in his arm, he announced from the hospital via Instagram. A tree had fallen on his forearm.

Nijhuis thinks he will be out of action for three to four weeks. He would be in charge of the FC Utrecht – Go Ahead Eagles game next Saturday.

Eintracht fans riot in Naples

Before the soccer match in Naples in the eighth finals of the Champions League between Napoli and Eintracht Frankfurt, heavy brawls broke out between police and supporters of the German club. According to reports in Italian and German media, Eintracht Frankfurt fans, together with Atalanta’s friendly hard core, pelted the police with all kinds of objects in the center of the Italian city. A police car was also set on fire.

The police reportedly responded with tear gas, after being bombarded with bottles, smoke bombs, metal poles and flares. There were also disturbances at the first game in Frankfurt.

There are believed to be hundreds of German visitors in Naples, although they have no access to the stadium. Italian authorities banned that earlier, fearing disturbances. There were already fears that many Eintracht fans would not let this stop them from making the trip anyway, having tried in many ways to force them to get tickets after all.

UEFA announced Tuesday that Napoli should have allowed the fans to attend. The umbrella body even wants to change the rules so that if a stadium refuses visiting supporters entry the match in question may not be played there.