Napoli had a good start in the 2019/20 Champions League campaign. In the first game, they secured a victory on European Champions, Liverpool thanks to Dries Mertens’ and Fernando Llorente’s goal. They travelled to Belgium and played against Genk. Genk now positioned at the 6th in the league, and they were crushed by Salzburg with a 2-6 defeat. Napoli aimed to take all three points and continue becoming the first in the group.
In this tactical analysis, we are going to show you the tactical battle between Genk and Napoli, and how the tactics resulted in a draw.
Line-ups
Felice Mazzu’s Genk started in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Colombia centre back Jhon Lucimí partnered another Colombian Carlos Cuesta in defence. Japanese Junya Ito started on the right flank; Theo Bongonda started on the left; Mbwana Samatta was the lone striker.
Carlo Ancelotti instructed his team to play in a 4-4-2 formation. Both goal scorers in the Liverpool game were benched. The squad was rotated, Mário Rui started instead of Faouzi Ghoulam. Despite the match ban in Serie A, Kalidou Koulibaly returned to the squad. Piotr Zieliński was on the bench and Fabián Ruiz took his position. It was Hirving Lozano who partnered with Arkadiusz Milik.
The build-up of Napoli
Napoli built-up in a safe manner. They emphasized on the numerical superiority and they committed four players in this phase. Two centre backs, the right-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo and one of the central midfielders were involved. With their structure, they could form two layers to break the press from Genk’s striker Samatta.
To read the full tactical analysis of this match – click here
Artwork by @chapulana
If you love tactical analysis, then you’ll love the digital magazines from totalfootballanalysis.com – a guaranteed 100+ pages of pure tactical analysis covering topics from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and many, many more. Buy your copy of the September issue for just ₤4.99 here
