De Sanctis sets Napoli Champions League target

Napoli goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis has set his Serie A side a target of eight points from their remaining five league games to ensure they qualify directly for next season’s Champions League group stages.

Napoli currently sit second in the table, six points behind leaders Milan and five ahead of fourth-placed Lazio.

The top four teams in Italy qualify for next season’s Champions League, although the fourth-placed finishers must play a qualifying round to reach the group stages.

This season Sampdoria were knocked out in that round by Germany’s Werder Bremen.

And De Sanctis, who seems to have given up hope of landing the title, wants his side to ensure they go straight into the group stages.

“Six points with five games left is a reassuring advantage for Milan,” said De Sanctis.

“We have a good gap to fourth place, I think eight points should be enough to maintain that position.

“We’ll try to get them as soon as we can to keep hold of second place and to secure a fantastic season in the Champions League.”

If Napoli were to earn eight points from their final five games, Lazio would need four wins and a draw to overtake them on a better head-to-head record while fifth-placed Udinese would need to win all five of their matches.

Napoli lost at home to Udinese at the weekend and travel to Palermo next looking to bounce back.

“We’ve always reacted after a defeat and now we need to consolidate second place,” De Sanctis said.

“At Palermo we need to win points to get as quickly as we can to our objective.”