Carlo Ancelotti joked his old PSG players always come back to punish him after a 1-1 Napoli draw, but the group “cannot be more balanced.”

Juan Bernat scored on the stroke of half-time and Lorenzo Insigne converted a penalty for the 1-1 result.

Carlo Ancelotti joked his old PSG players always come back to punish him after a 1-1 Napoli draw, but the group “cannot be more balanced.”

Juan Bernat scored on the stroke of half-time and Lorenzo Insigne converted a penalty for the 1-1 result.

“I tried to modify the approach, which was a little too prudent in the first half and we allowed them to control the tempo too much. We put more pressure on their midfielders and things went better,” he told Sky Sport Italia.

“We played at a very high level for 20 minutes, then paid for the effort later on, as we tried to control at the end rather than attack.”

Napoli were held 2-2 at Parc des Princes too, but Liverpool lost 2-0 at Red Star Belgrade today.

That means the Italians are ahead of Liverpool on their head-to-head record, with six points each, Paris Saint-Germain are on five and Red Star four.

“The two draws with Paris Saint-Germain are positive, because we have a slight advantage if we do finish level with them. To be honest, we didn’t expect Liverpool to lose in Belgrade today, so now Red Star are getting involved too and the group cannot be more balanced.

“It was really unexpected, especially for the result that saw them lose 6-1 in Paris. It’ll be tight to the end.”

Was it smart to have Italy internationals Gigi Buffon and Lorenzo Insigne face off from the spot?

“Buffon knows Insigne well, but then Insigne knows Buffon too… Buffon was in great shape this evening, as always. I’ve seen many old friends, but my ex-players always punish me. Last time it was Di Maria, now Bernat has never scored in his life and picked this moment!

“We tend to press high and in this situation it meant pushing either Fabian Ruiz or Jose Callejon forward, which left spaces where we didn’t want to. In the first half, we didn’t want to give the spaces to Neymar, who would then set up Mbappé.”

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