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4th place: Liverpool (was 3rd)
Successful revenge! It’s been nearly two months since Liverpool lost 4-1 to Naples, but in what is currently an unsatisfactory part of the season, a 2-0 win made it a notable exclamation point.
In addition to the goals in the final, it was above all the defensive combination that stopped the Campania goal machine (third for number of goals in Europe), because the strong wings of Napoli in particular never really entered the game.
Typical of Jürgen Klopp, he let his team act venomous and aggressive in the first two thirds of the match, won a large number of second balls and committed a total of 18 fouls, almost double the usual for Liverpool! Additionally, a certain dominance of the game was used to combine well over 20 times in the high-speed and extremely variable Italian penalty area.
There, however, they acted costly until the last few minutes, the victory could have been considerably higher. CREATEFOOTBALL SCORE: 94
3rd place: SSC Napoli (was 2nd)
On August 31st SSC Napoli had lost points in 1-1 against Lecce: since then they had won 13 (!) Matches in a row both nationally and internationally and had become one of the most exciting teams in Europe!
In the last match of the group in Liverpool, however, it is the first defeat, the two goals conceded just before the end have even closed the direct confrontation with the Reds again, even net.
While Luciano Spaletti’s team usually takes control of the game with lots of ball possession and passing combinations, it was mainly the axis of construction around captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Andre Zambo Anguissa that produced many bad passes under the high pressure of the opponent.
As a result, you rarely really got into the offensive third or into the opponent’s penalty area, you only made two shots on goal. CREATEFOOTBALL SCORE: 95
2nd place: Manchester City (was 5th)
Manchester’s Skyblues beat Sevilla 3-1 fairly easily at the end of the group stage, giving even some younger, rotating players a chance to prove themselves.
17-year-old Rico Lewis made his professional debut and promptly drew 1-1, prepared by Julian Alvarez, who was named Man of the Match with one goal and two assists.
However, Erling Haaland was missing, whose power and quality of finishing not only provided goals, but also created space for teammates.
Despite Sevilla’s extremely deep positioning around their own penalty area, Pep Guardiola’s team managed to generate a total of 38 actions in the opposing penalty area using plug-in passes and sharp crosses! CREATEFOOTBALL SCORE: 97
1st place: FC Bayern (was 1st)
Bayern had already secured the group win before the final against Inter, but the Italian runner-up also felt the Munich side’s absolute will to win, so in the end there was a dominant 2-0 win. and after six games of the group the first place in the ranking of power!
Overall, it was the fifth consecutive group stage in which the German record champions have not lost a single match, the last in September 2017 in Paris! Against Inter it was the high positioning and the effective approach that immediately put the opponent under pressure, but also the variability of the ball of Monaco.
The Munich team were able to play both the center and the two wings without problems and create chances from there.
As a rule, the pressure from Inter was rarely very high, and Bayern managed to get through the occasional head-to-head with high individual quality, but in the end there were only rarely great chances. CREATEFOOTBALL SCORE: 100
