SSC Napoli are on the brink of being eliminated from the UEFA Champions League as the troubled Italian club face Chelsea today racked by a deep injury crisis and a faltering Serie A title defense.
Sat just inside the elimination zone on only eight points from seven matches after last week’s miserable 1-1 draw at Copenhagen, Napoli must beat Chelsea to scrape a place in next month’s playoffs.
That will be no easy task with the Blues, Antonio Conte’s former club, needing a win to stay in the top eight and bag direct qualification for the last 16.
Photo: AP
Napoli come into the game still stinging from a 3-0 defeat at Juventus which left the Italian champions nine points behind Serie A leaders Inter.
Sunday’s loss in Turin was a big slap in the face for Napoli and Conte, who was full of praise for his players who have had to dig deep in the face of a host injuries.
“Before today the last match we’d lost was against Udinese [on Dec. 14 last year]. We even won the Supercoppa Italiana in an emergency, an emergency which has got even worse,” Conte told DAZN on Sunday. “We’re going through a difficult period and I expect the fans to get behind the team.”
Conte’s bid to become the first Napoli coach to win back-to-back Serie A titles has been hampered by physical problems from the start of the season. It started with Romelu Lukaku suffering a hamstring injury which kept him out of action until the 79th minute of Sunday’s loss.
Lukaku replaced Antonio Vergara, who played in place of Italy international Matteo Politano, while new signing Giovane made his debut as a substitute.
Conte has also lost goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic to a hamstring knock, while winger David Neres flew to London for ankle surgery on Monday.
Kevin de Bruyne has been out since October last year and will not be back until the spring after surgery on his right hamstring, while another key midfielder Andre-Frank Anguissa was supposed to be back on Sunday from another hamstring injury, but was left out due to back problems.
“We know that we’re navigating in open waters with very high waves, but we’re not getting off the boat,” Conte said. “We’re still here, made stronger by the fact that we want to keep fighting with all our might even with the absurd situation that we’re in.”
“These boys are serious, they’re giving everything and I see what they’re doing, what they have to put up with, what they’re risking, because let’s be clear here, they’re jeopardizing their physical health,” he said. “They’re playing every three days, not training, and the same players have to play high-intensity football because we don’t have any chance to rotate.”
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