Class The obvious and most important advantage of the Italian team. Serie A - top-championship, and Napoli - one of its leaders. Last season the Neapolitans took the third place, until the last round fighting with Roma for the second, now bookmakers and journalists regard them as the main competitors of Juventus in the fight for the Scudetto. The composition of Napoli is replete with stars: Coulibaly, Hamshik, Insigne, Mertens - each of them would be glad to see any team of the world. According to the evaluation of the portal Transfermarkt. de, Napoli players in the amount of 347 million euros, Shakhtar - 103 million. Bernard, nominally the most expensive of the Miners, concedes immediately 12 players of the Italian team.
The special power of Napoli is the "attack group" composed of Insigne, Mertens and Callejon. Thanks to their efforts, the Neapolitans in the last championship became the most productive team of Serie A, scoring 94 goals or almost 2.5 on average per game. The above attacking trio scored exactly 60 times in the championship!.
The form of Napoli brilliantly started this season. Three Serie A matches, two championships in the Champions League qualification - all of them ended with the victories of the team of Maurizio Sarri, and none of them was minimal. Neapolitans steadily add in the second half: 3 times they scored before the break, 10 times - after. Each of the rivals, though Nice, even Atalanta, was defeated with a margin. The team from Bergamo managed to score first in Naples, but Parthenopei did not embarrass, the final 3: 1 rightly reflected the course of the meeting.
The impressive form of Napoli is due to two factors. First - excellent teamwork. The basis of the team has not changed at all compared to last season, the players have perfect mutual understanding. The second is the need to prepare a team for the qualification matches of the Champions League. Two years ago, Napoli burned at this stage, losing to Athletic, but now did not leave the chances Nice. The miner also took shape under the group stage, however, the opponent rushes, as if on wings.
Tactics Maurizio Sarri is a tactical genius whose work is admired in Italy. For two years in Naples, he built a team with a recognizable manner of play. Napoli outperforms the rest of the Serie A team on ball possession and the number of gears. Neapolitans act compactly and literally squeeze opponents into their penalty area. They are extremely dangerous in positional attacks, and on the refinement of the combinations are not inferior to Barcelona.
The difficulty for Shakhtar is that the Miners did not resist the rivals of the big caliber for a long time. The miner is used to playing in the Ukrainian championship, where even Dynamo prefers to act against him with the second number, not to mention other teams that consistently roll out the "bus". It will be different now. Napoli always aspires to the total ownership of the initiative, the Miners will have to modify the manner of the game: for example, the flank defenders should pay more attention to defense, and Brazilian midfielders - regularly press the center of the opponent's opponents.
The experience of Napoli, unlike Shakhtar, is not a habit of the Champions League, but this is the case when the experience is hard to call a trump card Gornyakov. When Paul Fonseca, they only once happened to meet with the team from the top championship, and the confrontation with Celta was unsuccessful. The same Portuguese specialist only once participated in the group stage of the Champions League: in the season-2013/14, his Porto failed to leave the group, having passed ahead of Atletico and Zenit. Unlike Lucescu with his enormous knowledge, Fonseque needs to prove his competitiveness at this level.
The basis of the current Shakhtar was formed in 2016 through the play-off matches of the Europa League, and then - in the group stage of the next draw, already with Fonseca. It was then that Ismaili, Ferreira and Kovalenko broke through and Tyson and Marlos became entrenched in the role of the team's obvious leaders. After Kucher's departure, only two veterans remained in the Miners, Srna and Pyatov. This team has yet to be tempered in the crucible of the Champions League.
Problems of the Miner The Champion of Ukraine has a number of game problems. The defense of the Miners is far from perfect, which is especially important in the confrontation with Napoli's superat. Particular concern is the center of protection. Ordner due to injury missed all of August, and his rival Krivtsov was injured in a match with Zarey and against Napoli just will not play. The Ordress, moreover, does not have a high speed, it will not be easy to restrain the mobile Neapolitans.
Confused Shakhtar's habit of conceding in the account. In five matches of the Ukrainian championship of eight played Miners were forced to recoup. Four cases ended in strong-willed victories, but the game with Dynamo is more critical when the Donetsk team lost 0: 1.
A quick goal in the performance of Napoli may end in serious trouble, this team does not stop in an attempt to keep the preponderance.
The long-standing problem of "orange-black" is the realization of moments. If the midfield Gornyakov qualitatively creates, then the game directly at the gate of others cost a lot of nerve cells as a coaching staff, and fans. In the championship of Ukraine this is not so important, because Shakhtar as a rule has an absolute game advantage, but in the Champions League our team will have much less chance.