soccer | Liverpool x Napoli - Nov 01 | 20:00 UTC

[Mat]

Game info Liverpool x Napoli 

 

Qualified for the round of 16 of the Champions League, Liverpool and Napoli will battle this Tuesday, November 1st, for the first place in group A. The duel is part of the Friday's agenda – last – round of the group stage of the 2022/2023 edition of the Champions League. The meeting point will be the Anfield Road stadium in Liverpool. The start is scheduled for 20:00 UTC.

 

How does the 2022/2023 Champions League work?

 

UEFA, the organization that organizes the Champions League, has announced a profound change in the tournament. However, it will be valid only in the 2024/2025 season. In version 2022/2023, the regulation of the last editions was maintained. The tournament has 32 participants, divided into eight brackets in their group stage. They will face each other in a round-trip system. At the end of six rounds, the first two will advance in the dispute for the title. However, the third place will still have the chance to keep the international calendar in another competition. It will be relegated to the Europa League, where it will enter the round of 16 stages.

 

Liverpool

Liverpool's mission to knock Napoli out of the top spot is far from easy. Victory is not enough. It would allow teams to achieve the same score. However, this would bring the definition into confrontation. The Italians have a huge advantage in this regard. They won 4-1 in the first round. Thus, the English will have to win by at least four goals of difference.

 

A victory by three goals will not be enough. She would make them equal in confrontation. This would cause the definition to be made on goal difference. In this scenario, Napoli would win by 13-12. However, establishing a routing victory doesn't seem to be the Reds' most significant problem, who have already done it a few times this season. The biggest headache for coach Jurgen Klopp is trying to contain the enormous fluctuations of the team, which both achieve actual results such as the 1-0 victory against Manchester City, the main favorite for the Premier League title, and, in the next round, Nottingham Forest, then bottom of the tournament, also 1-0.

 

Saturday, October 29th, was zebra day at Anfield Road. Liverpool was beaten by Leeds, who were in the relegation zone of the Premier League, in a match for the fourteenth round of the competition. It took 2-1. With 16 points (four wins, four draws, and four defeats), it occupies the ninth position in the Premier League leaderboard. It is already 15 points behind Arsenal, leader, and seven behind Manchester United, fifth place and last team in the region that distributes places in international competitions.

 

Napoli

In the last 13 matches, the fluctuations of Napoli, who have not suffered a defeat in the season, have been minimal. The team won all the matches it played. The performance pattern varied between successes by a small margin and routs. Saturday, October 29th, was a day with many balls in the net. With Sassuolo as a victim, the Neapolitans applied 4 to 0.

The match was worthy for the twelfth round of Serie A. Having kept the ball for 67% of the time, Napoli developed 18 opportunities to finish. He sent half a dozen of them on target. In the first half, he built a three-goal lead. Osimhen scored in the 4th to the 19th minute, and Kvaratshelia scored in the 36th minute. In the final phase, he slowed down. He returned to swing the net in the 32nd minute. Osimhen completed his hat trick.

 

This took Napoli to 32 points (ten wins and two defeats). It expanded, in this way, to five facts about the second place, which was again Atalanta. By beating Empoli by 2 to 0, the team from Bergamo surpassed Milan, until then vice-leader, which was defeated by 2 to 1 by Torino. In the Champions League, the Neapolitans present the best campaign among the 32 participants after the first five matches. In addition to the five victories, they have the best attack (20 goals scored).