Napoli looked sluggish and out of steam as they capitulated 2-0 to Jose Mourinho’s Benfica, putting their Champions League progress in real doubt.
The Partenopei were still missing Stanislav Lobotka, Billy Gilmour, Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Miguel Gutierrez and Romelu Lukaku, so had the same starting XI that beat Juventus in Serie A on Sunday. Jose Mourinho’s Benfica had lost the opening four games in the competition before beating Ajax. Dodi Lukebakio and Henrique Araujo joined long-term absentees Alexander Bah and Bruma on the treatment table, but star striker Vangelis Pavlidis was surprisingly benched.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Leandro Barreiro had penalty appeals in the opening four minutes, but VAR confirmed the referee’s reading that Eljif Elmas got the ball first.
Benfica had a double opportunity when Fredrik Aursnes sprung the offside trap and his back-heel flick released Franjo Ivanovic, but Vanja Milinkovic-Savic made a big one-handed save, then Aursnes turned the rebound inches wide.
Napoli got away with a huge error playing out from the back when Milinkovic-Savic passed it straight to Aursnes, who in turn somehow drilled wide of the near post.
However, Benfica took a deserved lead moments later when Ivanovic nodded down a cross and Richard Rios reacted quicker than anyone else to prod home from four yards.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo nodded a ball across the face of goal, then Scott McTominay collided with Matias Olivera as they both went for the header at the far post.
An acrobatic Nicolas Otamendi attempt was charged down and he fired the rebound over, so Antonio Conte made a double change at the break, switching to a 4-4-2 formation.
Just after Alessandro Buongiorno’s header was easy for the goalkeeper, Benfica scored their second with a well-worked move down the right, concluding with a Rios roll across and Barreiro getting in front of Amir Rrahmani to flick in from six yards at the near post.
Any remaining belief visibly drained from Napoli, who struggled to create any real scoring opportunities in Lisbon.
David Neres forced Anatoliy Trubin to fingertip a snapshot over the bar, while McTominay at full stretch couldn’t connect with a Matteo Politano cross to the back post.
Instead, Milinkovic-Savic kept the scoreline down when his gloves were stung by substitute Pavlidis in the closing stages, then he stood his ground and used all his height to prevent a Pavlidis lob.
Napoli have now lost their last five away Champions League fixtures on the bounce.
Benfica 2-0 Napoli
Rios 20 (B), Barreiro 49 (B)
Player statistic
| Richard Rios |  |
20' |
| Leandro Barreiro (Assist: Richard Rios) |
|
49' | ||
| 52' |  |
Noa Lang | ||
| Amar Dedic | |
78' | ||
| 87' | |
Antonio Vergara |
Match statistic
Let’s get it straight, Conte is not a coach for European competitions. He doesn’t know how to approach these games, or he instills so much fear into his players that they don’t compete. Fear is a word they don’t have in the Premier League because they have the coaches that know how to handle these European games. Even the bottom placed teams in the Premier League would relish and be confident of taking on the best in Europe. In Series A that’s not the case. Fear of the opposition is the status quo. New coaches needed , especially for Champions League.
after a good few years the chickens are coming home to roost. serie a teams struggling to win these 50 50 games in Europe. I like Conte but this Napoli team is nowhere near the level of the spalleti team. that team was crushing UCL opponents up until april