Ramos To The Rescue As Napoli Crashes Out Of Champions Leagues

 

Real Madrid’s captain Sergio Ramos headed Real Madrid into the Champions League quarter-finals with two goals in six second half minutes. Madrid were given a first-half scare by Napoli who dominated and took the lead through Dries Mertens but the second period was a very different story.

Zinedine Zidane’s team had forced only one corner in the first half but they won two at the start of the second 45 minutes and Ramos rose to head home both Toni Kroos kicks. Once again he had used his head as Real Madrid were losing theirs. They had started the game badly with a weak clearance from Marcelo and a weak punch from Keylor Navas.

Napoli poured forward roared on by the Sao Paolo stadium that had been filling up for the previous five hours. The home supporters had plenty to shout about with five shots from Napoli in the first 15 minutes. None of them were on target but Mertens changed that on 24 minutes with his 17th goal in his last 16 games. Lorenzo Insigne could have got the second for Napoli before the break. He got between Casemiro and Pepe once more but Navas saved.

Napoli had 11 shots in the first half and if they had been more accurate Real Madrid would have been out by half-time. The hope for Madrid was that statistic about them having scored in each of their last 46 games would carry them through. If they could score, everything would change. Ramos duly took care of business. Former Juventus striker Alvaro Morata climbed off the bench to get the third in injury time but by then the game had been won.