Napoli vs Leicester City
Napoli and Leicester City are set to face off in a ‘winner-takes-all’ UEFA Europa League Group C showdown at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
An underwhelming 2-1 defeat at Spartak Moscow last time out puts Napoli in an awkward situation ahead of the Group C finale. After a patchy Europa League form this season (W2, D1, L2), the Italians could wave goodbye to the competition if they fail to beat Leicester here. Luciano Spalletti’s men came from a 2-0 deficit to hold the Premier League outfit to a 2-2 draw in the reverse H2H, which is in line with their high-scoring tendency. All five of Napoli’s Europa League outings this season have featured over 2.5 match goals, with four of them producing an opener inside the first 15 minutes of play. The ‘Partenopei’ will fancy their chances against Leicester, having won six of their last ten European home meetings with English visitors (D2, L2).
In the meantime, Leicester City head into proceedings sitting top of Group C, but a slender two-point lead on bottom-placed Legia means they can ill-afford to rest on their laurels. Except for a shock 1-0 defeat in Warsaw on Matchday 2, Brendan Rodgers’ men have unbeaten in their remaining four Europa League matches this season (W2, D2) despite failing to return a single clean sheet from that spread of games. Topically, each of Leicester’s last six away games in all competitions have seen both teams score (W2, D3, L1), five of which contained 3+ overall goals. Yet, the ‘Foxes’ need a point to progress into the Europa League knock-outs, and their free-scoring away form comes in handy. They’ve found the net in 18 of their last 19 travels across all competitions.