If Napoli’s gamers are trying over their shoulders as they kick off the weekend’s Serie A fixtures with a go to to struggling Empoli, it must be not on the distant chasing pack however at coach Luciano Spalletti. Napoli head into Saturday’s recreation having received seven straight in Serie A. Their hosts are winless of their final 4 video games. Victory would put Napoli 18 factors away from the chasing pack earlier than their pursuers have even performed. Napoli continued their dream season with a 2-0 victory in Frankfurt on Tuesday in a Champions League round-of-16 first leg.
After the win, Spalletti responded to questions on whether or not his crew had been already by to the quarter-finals by laying out a philosophy that applies equally to the league marketing campaign.
“If I see my plyers thinking like that when we get home this evening, they won’t play,” he mentioned. “Conceit is the worst fault in players.”
“We have to stay calm, very calm.”
But, the grim-faced coach added: “I’m happy, even if I don’t smile.”
After years of agonising collapses and close to misses, Napoli appear to be cruising to their first Italian title since Diego Maradona led them to their solely two titles in 1988 and 1990.
If they full the job in opposition to Frankfurt, Napoli will attain the final eight of the Champions League for the primary time.
They have dropped simply seven factors in 23 matches in Serie A. They have the perfect assault and the perfect defence.
No marvel the gamers and the followers who assist them on the Diego Armando Stadium are excited.
“At the beginning of the season almost no one thought we could get to certain levels, the team is playing a beautiful game,” backup striker Alessio Zerbin instructed Italian radio on Thursday.
“Seeing the Maradona always full, knowing that there are fans who travel around Italy and Europe to be near us, gives us a huge boost.”
The fixtures finish on Tuesday with a Turin derby which supplies Torino a uncommon probability to maneuver above Juventus, who’ve dropped to seventh after a 15-point deduction, simply two forward of their neighbours.
Key stats
2.6956: The variety of factors Napoli are averaging after 23 rounds. If they hold that up, they’ll end with 102, matching the document whole for a 20-team big-five European league set by Juventus in 2013-14.
41 years 25 days: Alessandro Costacurta’s age when he struck for Milan in 2007 making him the oldest scorer in Serie A. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who turned 41 in October throughout a protracted harm layoff, has been an unused substitute in Milan’s final two Serie A video games. When he scores his subsequent objective he can even overtake Italy nice Silvio Piola, who was 40 years 4 months and 9 days outdated when he struck for Novara in 1954.
Player to look at: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
Napoli’s dazzling attacking play has made them a crew to look at and on the coronary heart of it’s the mesmerising artistic play of the 21-year-old Georgian who has soared in his first season in Serie A. He is the league’s fourth-best scorer with 10 and in addition leads the league in assists with 9. In Frankfurt on Tuesday he missed a penalty however then atoned with a highlight-reel help, a pointy no-look backheel to current Giovanni di Lorenzo with a transparent shot that the precise again slotted house.
Fixtures (instances GMT)
Saturday
Empoli v Napoli (1700), Lecce v Sassuolo (1945)
Sunday
Bologna v Inter Milan (1130), Salernitana v Monza (1400), Udinese v Spezia (1700) AC Milan v Atalanta (1945)
Monday
Hellas Verona v Fiorentina (1730), Lazio v Sampdoria (1945)
Tuesday
Cremonese v Roma (1730), Juventus v Torino (1945)
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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