Despite went behind by 0-1, defending champions Real Madrid clinched a 3-1 home victory against Napoli. Insigne put ahead the visitors which was replied by Benzema in the first half, and later Kroos and Casemiro scored a goal each early in the second half to secure a victory for the hosts.
An early stunning goal from Napoli attack Lorenzo Insigne (8’) put the hosts and defending champion Real Madrid under pressure. Real Madrid made a comeback after some moment through Karim Benzema’s goal. Later in the early second half, Toni Kroos and Casemiro scored a goal each which secured a 3-1 victory for the defending champion in their home leg match.
The hosts Real Madrid had a chance for an early lead, as they had a chance to score at just 20 seconds of the match. Ronaldo produced a ball for Benzema whose shot was saved by Napoli keeper Pepe Reina.
On the 8 minutes, Insigne produced a superb curl from outside the box which the hosts’ goalie Keylor Navas failed to track and resulted a stunning early goal for the visitors.
4 minutes later, Benzema’s header from Ronaldo’s cross failed to find on target.
However, the defending champions had not wait much longer to equalize the scoreline as Benzema made that on 18 minutes. Carvajal’s cross found Benzema whose superb header beat Reina and made 1-1 for Real Madrid.
Real Madrid had some good chances to take the first half lead. On 28 minutes, Modric created a ball for Ronaldo but the Portuguese star fired that over the bar.
Just before the half time (42’), Ronaldo put a sensational through ball for Benzema who just failed to put the ball into the net.
At the end of the first half, the scoreline was 1-1. Despite an early goal from Napoli, the hosts dominated all over the park in that half.
At the beginning of the second half, Real Madrid scored two back-to-back goals.
On 4 minutes of the 2nd half, Ronaldo beautifully organised a ball for Kroos who superbly finished that to give a 2-1 lead for the hosts.
Just 4 minutes later that goal, Marcelo’s shot from outside the box found just over the net.
Real Madrid extended their lead to 3-1 in the very next minute with another superb goal. Casemiro’s volley from outside the box beat the goalie and found bottom left corner of the net.
Napoli tried hard to find at least another goal in this match but they were unable to get that. On the other hand, the hosts several chances to extend their lead but they did not get that.
On 81 minutes, Napoli attacker Jose Callejon netted a ball but before that he was found in an offside position which was forced to dismiss that chance.
Napoli only managed 2 shots on target (out of 8 shots) while the defending champions made 6 shots on target (out of 20 shots) in the entire match. Real Madrid had domination into the match, while Napoli found hard to escape.
At the end, Real Madrid clinched a 3-1 victory in the first leg of UCL 2016/17 round of 16. Despite having an away goal, it will be very tough for Napoli to make a return in this game. The second leg of this game will be held on 7th March at Napoli’s home ground (Stadio San Paolo, Naples).