Logically, the two favorites of the group, Naples and Real Madrid, qualified this Tuesday evening for the 8th of the Champions League. The Italians beat Braga (2-0) while the Madrilenians overthrew Union Berlin (2-3). Still in the same group, Braga finishes 3rd and will play a Europa League play-off.
Their title of Italian champion already lost even before the end of the year, Naples can console themselves with the Champions League, in which they will play the round of 16 after their victory against Braga (2-0) on Tuesday. Napoli, relegated fourteen points behind Inter Milan and 6th in the league, will return to the premier competition of European football in February. It finished 2nd in group C, with 10 points, behind Real Madrid, author of a full card (18 pts). And this, thanks to a success in his Diego-Armando-Maradona stadium where he suffered and disappointed so much this season, where he had not won for over two months.
Since September 27, the reigning Italian champions had conceded four defeats in front of their home crowd, including one against poorly ranked Empoli (1-0) fatal to their French coach Rudi Garcia, sacked on November 14, and two draws. Against Braga, Victor Osimhen, voted best African player of the year the day before, and his teammates quickly showed that they had no complexes at home despite their poor series. Even if they didn’t necessarily need it, they were helped a lot by a very laborious Portuguese defensive hinge.
It only took them nine minutes to take the advantage: on a touch quickly played by his captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Matteo Politano outpaced the Braga rearguard and his cross was propelled into his own goal by Serdar Saatçi In the 31st minute, Piotr Zielinski infiltrated the penalty area easily, but his point-blank shot was diverted for a corner by Matheus. Two minutes later, Osimhen doubled the lead with his first goal of the season in C1: taking advantage of Natan’s work on the left wing, the Nigerian played José Fonte and deceived Braga’s Brazilian goalkeeper to a back heel to the goal. Demoralized even before the end of the first period, Braga failed to revive after the break and Walter Mazzarri was able to rotate his squad.
Osimhem, who made the Naples-Marrakech round trip the day before to receive his trophy for best African player, Politano and Zielenski quickly gave up their place in view of the reception this weekend of Cagliari in the championship to confirm this start to residence. Napoli, which last season reached the quarter-finals of the competition where it fell to AC Milan, is the third Italian club to reach the round of 16 after Inter Milan and Lazio Rome, already qualified after the 5th day.
Assured of first place in its group, Real Madrid won Tuesday evening on the pitch of Union Berlin (3-2) at the Olympic stadium, carried by a double from Joselu, for the last day of the League champions. With 18 points out of 18 possible on the clock, Carlo Ancelotti’s men are ahead of Naples, winner Tuesday evening on their lawn against the Portuguese of Braga (2-0), transferred to the Europa League.
Dominant, the Madrilenians missed the opener just before the break, on a penalty from Luka Modric repelled by the Union Berlin goalkeeper, Frederik Rönnow (45th). On the next chance, Real central defender David Alaba completely missed and Union center forward Kevin Volland did not miss the opportunity to open the scoring. Trailing against the run of play, Real overturned the match through Joselu in the space of ten minutes. Shortly after the hour mark, the Spanish international first got rid of his defender’s marking to finally deceive Rönnow.
The Danish goalkeeper from Berlin had until then rejected all Madrid’s attempts, notably against Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo. On a counter-attack initiated by Modric, Real Madrid took the lead with around twenty minutes remaining, Joselu finding himself at the conclusion. In the last five minutes, the match took a crazy turn with Alex Kral’s equalizer for the Berliners in the 85th minute and the winning goal for Real Madrid by Dani Ceballos (89th). The first experience in the Champions League for Union Berlin, a club with a crazy rise from the 2nd division to the C1 in four seasons, ends with four defeats and two draws.
