Napoli director Cristiano Giuntoli reveals why Mario Rui isn’t starting against Liverpool in the Champions League, the Keylor Navas situation and why they ‘never really’ intended to get Cristiano Ronaldo.
It kicks off at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
“Mario Rui had this gastroenteritis, hasn’t trained as much, so the coach decided to put him on the bench. Lozano didn’t train regularly either, so we are giving priority to those players in the best shape,” Giuntoli told Sky Sport Italia and Mediaset Infinity.
It is a return to the Champions League after a two-year absence for the Partenopei.
“We are very happy to be back in this great tournament, we brought in new players who are giving us good responses and we just need to keep going.”
Kvaratskhelia has been a revelation, as the 21-year-old Georgia international contributed four goals and one assist in five Serie A appearances so far in the Napoli jersey.
“He is certainly a very mature lad for his age, he’ll be excited at this game, but he’ll know what to do.”
How will this game end?
“We hope to win!”
Inevitably, there were questions on the summer transfer story which saw Cristiano Ronaldo linked with Napoli as an escape from Manchester United, who failed to qualify for the Champions League.
“We never really talked about Ronaldo,” assured Giuntoli.
“In football you get nowhere with ifs and buts. We are happy with the squad we have, we are confident this is a competitive team.”
Could Ronaldo have made a good partner for Osimhen?
“Who knows?”
Napoli were in negotiations for weeks with Paris Saint-Germain for goalkeeper Keylor Navas, but eventually abandoned the idea.
“We are not in any talks for Navas now, we are focusing on Meret and close to an agreement for a new contract.”