3 things we learned as Manchester City eased past Napoli in Champions League

Manchester City have taken full control of Group F in the Champions League with their third win in three matches, this time dispatching one of the more exciting European teams in Napoli with relative ease in a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium. Early goals from Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus were all City needed to earn all three points, as Napoli’s second half fight to get back into the match and get a point out of it wasn’t enough in the end.

The match started with nothing but one-way traffic, with Manchester City’s attack flying all over Napoli’s defense, using their superior pace to pick the Italian defense apart almost at will. Two goals in the first 15 minutes from Sterling and Jesus came as a result of Elseid Hysaj and Raul Albiol getting absolutely roasted by City attackers, as well as some excellent passing from Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane to take advantage of Napoli’s struggles.

City easily controlled the match well into the second half, aside from a penalty surrendered late in the first half following a Napoli corner kick, but Ederson saved Dries Mertens’ poor attempt with ease. A tactical shift in midfield from the Italians saw them start too slowly get back into things, though, and their own quick-trigger passing game finally started to give them openings that they had struggled for the first hour of the match to win.

Napoli finally got on the scoreboard in the 73rd minute thanks to a second penalty, this one won when Faouzi Ghoulam burst into the box and was brought down with a late trailing leg from Fernandinho. This time Amadou Diawara stepped up to take it, and scored his first-ever senior professional goal to give Napoli at least some chance in this match.

But for all their efforts, they couldn’t break City’s defense a second time, with Pep Guardiola’s team maintaining just enough ability to push forward with the ball to keep Napoli from going all-out in attack. Napoli being forced to use two of their substitutions on injuries, including the loss of key forward Lorenzo Insigne, didn’t help matters much, and thanks to this win Manchester City find themselves in full control of Group F with nine points from their first three Champions League matches.

Napoli, meanwhile, are in trouble, thanks to Shakhtar Donetsk winning in Holland, putting Feyenoord down 2-1. That result and this loss puts Napoli three points out of second place halfway through the group, putting immense weight on Napoli’s upcoming home match against Manchester in two weeks’ time, and on their own trip to Holland to face Feyenoord. They have no room for error now if they want to make the knockout stages, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they respond from here.

Manchester City: Ederson; Kyle Walker, John Stones, Nicolas Otamendi, Fabian Delph; Kevin De Bruyne, Fernandinho, David Silva (Ilkay Gundogan 76’); Raheem Sterling (Bernardo Silva 69’), Gabriel Jesus (Danilo 86’), Leroy Sane

Goals: Sterling (9’), Jesus (13’)

Napoli: Pepe Reina; Elseid Hysaj (Christian Maggio 70’), Raul Albiol, Kalidou Koulibaly, Faouzi Ghoulam; Piotr Zielinski, Amadou Diawara, Marek Hamsik (Adam Ounas 78’); Jose Callejon, Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne (Allan 57’)

Goals: Diawara (pen. 73’)

Three things we learned

Napoli got roasted by Manchester City’s pace

Napoli have gotten off to a wildly successful start to the season in Serie A thanks to a strong possession game and a front four that’s faster than most of their peers in Italy. But Manchester City play at a higher pace than any team in Italy, and that caught Napoli out in a bad way, especially early in the match.

City’s speed in attack and midfield seemed to catch Napoli ill-prepared, with their defense constantly getting caught out of position and too slow to respond. Elseid Hysaj and Raul Albiol were particularly poor in that area, with Hysaj getting beaten by CIty winger Leroy Sane over and over again early in the match.

Napoli just didn’t have a response for City’s pace, especially with Allan and Jorginho on the bench. Two of Napoli’s best midfielders to offer area control and possession safety respectively, Manchester exploited their absence ruthlessly, especially with Piotr Zielinski really struggling to fill Allan’s shoes. That allowed City to bypass Napoli’s midfield repeatedly, leaving their defense over-exposed and under siege for far too much of the match, essentially until Allan came on in the second half to help restore order.

Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling are terrifying

It’s hard to determine who the best wing duo is in England right now, especially with Liverpool boasting three fantastic options in that area, but no matter who you favor Sane and Sterling have to be high on your list. The young duo absolutely terrorized Napoli’s back line on Tuesday night, just like their quick feet and faster instincts have instilled dear in EPL defenses all season long.

Sane’s tricky feet and Sterling’s sheer athleticism are an obscenely dangerous combination, especially with a striker who finds space well in between them like Gabriel Jesus or Sergio Aguero. It’s something that’s hard to gameplan for, because they demand so much attention it leaves you potentially exposed elsewhere. With those two in form and firing, Manchester City are going to be tough to stop in the final third.

Napoli need Marek Hamsik back in form

Napoli’s captain has been a talismanic figure for the Italian club ever since his arrival a decade ago, proving so successful in Naples that he’s nearly reached the club goalscoring record long held by Diego Maradona. But this season, his form has been shaky — in large part because of a hamstring injury he’s played through most of the year — and Napoli haven’t been quite as good as they could be because of it.

Hamsik’s struggles were put in stark light against Manchester City, with several bad losses of possession and missing a clear-cut scoring chance in the second half that he’s rarely missed the likes of for the partenopei. This is the kind of game that we’ve typically seen him put the team on his back and carried them to glory, but he just didn’t seem able to in this game. If Napoli really are going to take a step forward as a team this season and challenge the elite in Europe, they need Hamsik to improve and get back in form — fast.