Napoli need a major win against Spanish giants Real Madrid at San Paolo Stadium on Tuesday if they are to advance to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after the Blancos secured a 3-1 victory at Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg. Napoli had taken an early lead in the Spanish capital thanks to a goal from Lorenzo Insigne, but Real Madrid fought back and Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos and Casemiro scored to give them a solid advantage ahead of the trip to Italy.
After having lost three of four games, starting with the first leg in Madrid, Napoli bounced back last week with a great 2-1 victory at Serie A rivals AS Roma. Dries Mertens scored both goals in that match and he will probably continue to play as a false striker instead of Arkadiusz Milik. The Belgium forward has picked up a calf strain but head coach Maurizio Sarri might choose to send him in the starting eleven even if he doesn't fully recover. There are no other injury worries for the home side.
Real Madrid have been going through some trouble lately, a 2-1 defeat at Valencia and a 3-3 home draw against Las Palmas saw Zinedine Zidane's men lose their place at the top of the table to rivals Barcelona. The title race in LaLiga is very tight, but Real can't afford to make any mistakes in the Champions League either. Last weekend they won 4-1 at Eibar, even without suspended Gareth Bale and injured Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese star has recovered and is ready to play on Tuesday, while Raphael Varane remains Zidane's only injury concern.
Probable line-ups:
Napoli: Reina - Hysaj, Albiol, Koulibaly, Ghoulam - Zielinski, Jorginho, Hamsik - Callejon, Mertens, Insigne
Real Madrid: Navas - Carvajal, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo - Kroos, Casemiro, Modric - Bale, Benzema, Ronaldo
My prediction: 2-2 draw.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Napoli win - 2.80
Draw - 3.80
Real Madrid win - 2.45
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Comments (1)
sharpe
03/06/17, 11:03:49 PM
That would be the more intriguing of the two games tomorrow it seems although I'm not sure Napoli could really threatened enough Real Madrid. I think the first...
That would be the more intriguing of the two games tomorrow it seems although I'm not sure Napoli could really threatened enough Real Madrid. I think the first game started great for the Italian side but they just didn't seem to do enough to get the good result, didn't show enough character and that's why I believe they wont be able to cause a huge preblems to the Spanish favourite, I think 1-1 is a realistic prediction.
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