Champions League: Los Blancos May Find it Hot in Naples

Napoli vs Real Madrid

Champions League football is back on the agenda folks and we have a cracker in store on Tuesday when Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid head to the Diego Maradona Stadium to take on Italian champions Napoli.  

Both teams started with a narrow win, Rudi Garcia’s Napoli picking up a 2-1 victory away to Braga while Real Madrid edged out FC Union Berlin 1-0 thanks to a late strike from Jude Bellingham. The winner of this tie will take a firm grip of Group C but the Spaniards can expect to receive a hot reception from the passionate Naples crowd.  

Both teams come into the game bang in form. On Saturday Napoli won 4-0 away to Lecce while Los Blancos picked up a 3-0 victory away to Girona to leapfrog their hosts and take top spot in La Liga.

There are some huge names in this blockbuster clash so let’s take a look at two men who may well write the Wednesday morning sports headlines.

Talking Points

Unhappy Osimhen still scoring

There is some very unhelpful noise around Napoli at the moment concerning star striker Victor Osimhen who is embroiled in a row over a TikTok video released by the club’s social media team. They posted a video mocking the Nigerian and his agent has threatened legal action. The footage showed Osimhen appealing for a penalty during the Partenopei’s goalless draw with Bologna and it was speeded up with an audio caption saying ‘Gimme penalty please’ and then the 24 year old shanking the spot-kick well wide. 

Now the player looks more likely to leave Napoli in the January transfer window and Real Madrid could well be at the front of the queue, though they will be in competition with the Saudi Pro League. In the meantime Osimhen has carried on scoring, one against Udinese and another in the win over Lecce and that puts him in second place in the race for the Capocannoniere.            

Garcia decided to give Osimhen a rest in the match with Lecce and he came off the bench to score a towering header from a beauty of a cross delivered by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. If those two link up it could spell trouble for Los Blancos, and an angry Osimhen will be hard to handle. 

Stop Bellingham and you can maybe stop Real 

This is a difficult match to call; but one prediction we can safely make is that Real Madrid’s midfield maestro, Jude Bellingham, will feature heavily in the Champions League 2023 highlights this week. As well as scoring the dramatic late winner against FC Union Berlin he bagged another goal in Real Madrid’s comfortable victory away to Girona. Bellingham has always been a superb box to box midfielder, strong in the tackle, a powerful runner with great ball skills and a great range of passing.

And now he has added goals to his game.

His strike against Girona was his seventh of the season and that is a massive uptick in goals to games, he scored 16 in his previous 130 games, for Birmingham City and Borussia Dortmund and, amazingly, Bellingham is still only 20 years old. The world is at his feet and the 103m Euros Los Blancos paid for him already looks like money well spent.          

History

Real Madrid are the record 14 times European champions and the latest Champions League 2023 betting odds make Los Blancos joint third favourites at odds of 9.00 to make it 15. While Real Madrid are one of the teams expected to challenge hot favourites Manchester City, Napoli are backed to make the last eight; so we expect to see both teams make it to the knockout phase.  

Real Madrid have won both previous meetings a two leg Round of 16 clash in the 2017 Champions League, both legs finishing 3-1 to the Spaniards.  

And both teams come into the game on a good run for form; the Partenopei have won four, drawn two and lost one of the last seven games while Los Blancos have won six of their last seven games, with a solitary loss, a 3-1 defeat to Atletico Madrid.    

Betting Tip

With Napoli at SBOTOP odds of 2.40 to win this game and Real Madrid at 2.51, the match is pretty much on a knife edge; and the draw at 3.16 might well be the winner.

A 1-1 draw or a close win either way could well be on the cards, and what price Osimhen and Bellingham to get on the score sheet?  

 

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