Chelsea’s Champions League hopes are in major jeopardy after they were beaten 3-1 by Napoli in Tuesday’s last 16 first leg clash at Stadio San Paolo.
Ezequiel Lavezzi starred throughout for Napoli and, after his side fell behind to Juan Mata’s goal against the run of play, it was he who levelled the game. Edinson Cavani then gave Walter Mazzari’s side a half-time lead, and Lavezzi added another in an all attack-no defence second 45 minutes that leaves troubled Chelsea boss Andre Villas Boas under even more pressure.
Already without injured captain John Terry, Villas-Boas declared Ashley Cole not fit enough to start and he joined Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Fernando Torres on a big-name bench. However, Cole was introduced not long after the 10-minute mark when Jose Bosingwa, who started out of position at left back, suffered a hamstring injury and had to be replaced.
Even before that change, Napoli – whose coach Mazzari was banned from the touchline - had twice exposed the visiting defence, with Cavani getting in between Champions League debutant Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic. The first time he was offside, but his shot from the second needed to be kept out by an alert Petr Cech.
Lavezzi pounced on a poor Ramires touch to set Cavani up again soon after, but the flag foiled him as he took the ball wide of Cech. Chelsea, meanwhile, despite having a large number of starters in advanced positions, were struggling to create anything to threaten the home side’s rearguard.
Cole then failed his first test when Marek Hamsik played Christian Maggio in on the left of the area and his first-time shot needed keeping at bay from Cech. It had been all Napoli and there seemed to be little sign of a Chelsea goal.
So naturally they scored one in their next attack! Those afore-mentioned heavy numbers in attack saw Daniel Sturridge and Dider Drogba outnumber their opponents on the Chelsea right. Sturridge sent in a cross, which home captain Paolo Cannavaro could only miss-kick into Mata’s path and the Spaniard coolly slotted past Morgan De Sanctis for a Blues away goal.
Chelsea could have gone 2-0 up. Sturridge failed to play in an unmarked Mata when they broke, before the resulting corner saw David Luiz lose Cannavaro to meet Mata’s set-piece but head over. Instead, the home side levelled the game seven minutes before the break.
Cavani cut inside on the left before switching the ball to Lavezzi, who escaped the questionable attentions of Raul Meireles before curling a sweet effort to Cech’s left-hand corner from outside the area.
Ramires almost restored Chelsea’s lead when weaving his way past a static Napoli defence to get into the box, only to shoot over. But the third goal went to the opposition in the end. First half stoppage-time saw Gokhan Inler sweep in a peach of a cross from the right flank, and Cavani raced clear of Ivanovic to divert the ball home off his shoulder as the tide turned just before the half-time whistle.
The game resumed in real end-to-end fashion with Cavani and Lavezzi continuing to frighten Chelsea’s out-of-sorts defenders. De Sanctis, meanwhile, held shots from Malouda and Mata when Chelsea attacked, before Lavezzi spurned a great opportunity to get his second goal of the night. Meireles lost the ball again and Cavani played in the Argentine in the area, but he shot wide to Cech’s left from a matter of yards.
Villas-Boas’ men also missed a golden chance. A corner was conceded by Salvatore Aronica as Drogba threatened to poke in an equaliser and, from the set-piece, an unmarked Cahill dove in but headed wide.
That miss proved costly when Cahill and his comrades in defence were embarrassed by the lethal Cavani-Lavezzi partnership. Hugo Campagnaro sent forward a through-ball that Luiz made a mess of trying to clear. Cavani stole it off him and, as Cech ran from his goal, slipped the ball to the free man Lavezzi, who duly and clinically fired home his second of the evening.
Villas-Boas threw on Lampard and Essien for Meireles and Malouda in a bid to rescue something further from an evening that had gone so wrong, while Lavezzi was brought off to a standing ovation from the home fans.
Even without him, his side could have made it 4-1. Another excellent Cavani pass saw Hamsik in possession on the left of the area and he went past Ivanovic as if he was not there. He then squared to the back post where Maggio’s goalbound effort was turned off the line by Cole in what could yet be a key moment in the tie.
Lampard drew a flamboyant save from De Sanctis at the death, meaning that the two-goal deficit will remain in the three weeks until the second leg. Napoli will fancy their chances of adding to their tally in London, so Chelsea will have to be firing on all cylinders if they are to keep the Premier League’s Champions League prospects alive.