Champions League: Napoli Needs A Win? Well Here You Go...

Napoli vs KRC Genk

Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli can’t buy a victory at the moment, but they have a huge chance on Tuesday night when they host Belgian club Genk in their final Champions League group game.

Fans at the Stadio San Paulo will be more expectant than excited as their team needs a result to guarantee their passage through to the knockout phase. Gli Azzurri sits in second place in a group lead by Liverpool, one point ahead, and with Red Bull Salzburg still fighting, two points further back.

The Austrian side hosts the Premier League leaders and that game could easily go either way, so Ancelotti’s men need to finish the job at home to the bottom club.

Hannes Wolf brings his Genk team to Italy in uninspiring form, and already out of contention in the Champions League, six points behind Salzburg, so they can play without pressure on Tuesday, unlike their hosts. But I think if they go a goal behind then the floodgates could open.

Here at SBOBET we have Napoli at 2.40 to win Group E, and that will be the outcome if Salzburg gets a result against Liverpool.

Talking Points

Missing Marek?

Napoli has struggled to find any momentum in this season’s Serie A, and a recent draw away to Milan was as good a result as they have achieved in recent weeks. They sit in seventh place on 21 points, eight behind Roma in fourth and 17 points behind leaders Inter Milan.

Ancelotti has a talented squad to call upon, but the departure of midfield maestro Marek Hamsik to Dalian Yifang seems to have had a bigger impact than the head coach expected.

At 32 years old the Slovakian star still has plenty to offer, and he leaves a big hole in Naples. Hamsik holds Napoli’s official appearance record, having made 513, and he has made the most league appearances, 403 over 11 seasons. And he is the clubs all-time leading scorer having netted 120 times.

Champions League: Lorenzo Insigne is considered as Napoli's most influential player — Lorenzo Insigne in action during Napoli’s match against AC Milan

Belgian striker Dries Mertens is almost there, just four goals behind Hamsik, but despite scoring four of Napoli’s seven goals in the tournament, he hasn’t been as prolific so far in Serie A. Arkadiusz Milik is top scorer in the league with five, while Jose Callejon and the influential Lorenzo Insigne have four assists each.

Centre back Kalidou Koulibaly has made the second most recoveries (203) of any defender in the league; so Napoli have quality running right through the team.

They come into this game on the back of a 1-1 draw with Udinese. Piotr Zielinski scored as Gli Azzurri dominated from start to finish, enjoying 70 per cent possession while having 18 shots on goal to their hosts’ five, and three to one on target.

And after securing a point against Liverpool at Anfield, the latest Champions League 2019 betting odds back Napoli to progress to the Round of 16; and I expect them to win on Tuesday night.

Genk win at last

After going on an eight match winless streak, in all competitions, Genk finally won a game yesterday by 1-2, away to bottom club Cercle Brugge. The hard fought victory took Hannes Wolf’s side up to eighth in the Belgian First Division, but eight points behind a Europa League place and ten behind a Champions League slot.

26 year old striker Mbwanna Samatta is the man to look out for. He has been at Genk for three years and the Tanzanian star has three Champions League goals so far in this campaign.

If they somehow manage to win at the Stadio Sao Paolo then Genk will pull off one of the biggest Champions League 2019 results of the competition to date. But they have been savaged twice by Red Bull Salzburg, 6-2 and recently 1-4 at home, and have conceded 16 goals in their five matches to date.

History

Genk is a relatively young club, formed in 1988 by the merger of Waterschei Thor with KFC Winterslag. And it has been one of the most successful in the Belgian League, winning the title four times, most recently last term. But they have faltered this season, and yesterday’s victory was a first in nine attempts.

A 0-0 draw with Napoli in Genk was the Belgian club’s only point of this European campaign.

Napoli has pushed Juventus more than any other team during I Bianconeri’s domination of the Scudetto in recent years, but hasn’t won the title for three decades, after successes in 1987 and 1990.