Tonight, Napoli have a great chance to progress to the last eight of the UEFA Champions League as they take a 3-1 lead into the second leg of their last 16 tie against Chelsea at Stam-ford Bridge.
After a difficult period, Napoli have regained their best form lately and are winning games more regularly. On Friday, they were on top as they emerged 6-3 winners over Cagliari to record their sixth straight win, five of which in the Serie A.
Napoli’s win over Chelsea on February 21 could have been more emphatic as Walter Mazzarri’s side dominated for long stretches.
Chelsea, who have fired manager Andre Villas-Boas since, were all over the place but Napoli lacked the killer instinct to finish off their struggling opponents.
Many things have changed at Stamford Bridge since the start of the month. Villas-Boas, who steered Porto to glory in last season’s Europa League, is no longer in charge. It was an open secret that he had fallen out with most of Chelsea’s senior players but they have rejected suggestions that they influenced Roman Abramo-vich’s decision to sack the Portuguese.
Chelsea have appointed former midfielder Roberto Di Matteo as interim manager until the end of the season.
With the ex-Italy and Lazio player in the dug-out, Chelsea have regained some lost confidence as they returned to winning ways last week.
In fact, Chelsea have reached the FA Cup quarter-finals after beating Birmingham in a replay and on Saturday, they scraped to a 1-0 home win over 10-man Stoke City in Di Matteo’s first Premier League game at the helm.
Napoli cannot sit back and weather the storm tonight. If they do, they will jeopardise their chances of qualifying to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time.
Napoli’s strongest department is their attack and as such they have to give Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik the best chance to break down Chelsea’s suspect defence, so shaky without captain John Terry.
Napoli know they cannot lower their guard at this stage.
What happened to Milan at the Emirates Stadium last week, when Arsenal came within a whisker of knocking out the Rossoneri after going down 0-4 in the first leg, should serve as an eye-opener for Mazzarri and his players.
English teams have a knack of never giving up. Moreover, Chelsea have more experienced players in their squad compared to Napoli. Thus, for Napoli to succeed, they will have to stay focused from start to finish.
So far, they have performed brilliantly in Europe. Apart from the 3-1 win over Chelsea, in the first part of the season Napoli progressed to the first knockout round at the expense of mega-rich Manchester City from Group A.
Meanwhile, some top clubs in Europe are reportedly interested in engaging the services of coach Mazzarri while the three tenors, as Cavani, Lavezzi and Hamsik are popularly known in Naples, are also hot property in the transfer market.
Napoli owner and president Aurelio De Laurentiis has already declared that he will do everything possible to keep hold of the club’s prized assets.
However, there is always the risk that Napoli could lose one or two of their star players to richer clubs.
The strong wish to keep this team together will give the fans added motivation tonight because if Mazzarri inspires Napoli to another glorious night in Europe, the club’s dream would remain alive and that would in turn improve their chances of retaining their top players.
Serie A statistics
1st win for Inter after a seven-match winless run (two draws and five defeats) as they left it late to beat Chievo away for the first time in over two years last week. Inter’s sixth away win of the season coincided with Chievo’s fourth home upset so far this term.
4th home defeat for Palermo who were floored by Roma for the first time since August 2007 (2-0). This was Roma’s first success after back-to-back defeats to Atalanta (1-4) and Lazio (1-2). Palermo are the only side still to figure in a home draw this season. Novara returned to winning ways after a draw and two straight defeats as they handed Udinese their sixth away defeat of the season.
5th straight win for in-form Napoli who annihilated Cagliari 6-3 at the San Paolo stadium late Friday to stay in the hunt for a top-three position. Overall, Walter Mazzarri’s side are undefeated in their last seven outings. Cagliari only managed one point from the last available 12 and on Sunday coach Davide Ballardini lost his job and was replaced by Massimo Ficcadenti.
15 years had to pass for Bologna to get back to winning ways at Lazio’s Olympic Stadium as on Sunday Stefano Pioli’s men became the third side to conquer the capital this season. Catania added to Fiorentina’s woes as they cruised to their seventh home win of the term to almost make sure of survival.
24 goals – equally shared between hosts and visitors – were scored on the 27th day. There were 10 first-half goals while foreigners contributed with 13 goals. Total number of goals scored so far is 678. Two players, Matteo Rubin (Bologna) and Davide Astori (Cagliari), committed an own goal last weekend. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan) is the leading marksman with 19 goals.