Napoli look to Arkadiusz Milik, Fabian Ruiz and Lorenzo Insigne in a very difficult Champions League trip to Crvena Zvezda – Red Star Belgrade.
It kicks off at the legendary Marakana at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
Napoli look to Arkadiusz Milik, Fabian Ruiz and Lorenzo Insigne in a very difficult Champions League trip to Crvena Zvezda – Red Star Belgrade.
It kicks off at the legendary Marakana at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
Carlo Ancelotti has won the Champions League with both Milan and Real Madrid, so one of the reasons he was chosen to replace Maurizio Sarri was his continental pedigree.
It won’t be easy, as they are in the Group of Death with Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool.
He’s had some teething problems in Serie A, such as a 3-0 defeat to Sampdoria, but continues his experiments.
Alex Meret, Vlad Chiriches and Faouzi Ghoulam are out injured, but David Ospina returns in goal rather than Orestis Karnezis, with Milik again chosen to lead the trident attack.
Dries Mertens has been benched regularly so far this season and that looks set to continue for the time being.
There had been reports of Lorenzo Insigne also being dropped, but it’s Marek Hamsik who gets left on the bench, as summer signing Fabian Ruiz finally gets his debut in a Napoli jersey.
Crvena Zvezda are more commonly known as Red Star Belgrade and make their Champions League group phase debuts, although they won the old format European Cup in 1991.
After six failed attempts to get through the various qualifying rounds, they finally made it to the competition proper and lost only two of their last 17 European matches, winning seven.
Their home record is particularly strong inside the intimidating atmosphere of the Marakana, so they are unbeaten here in six European games since Arsenal’s 1-0 win in the Europa League group stage.
It’s a bad sign that Napoli have lost their last four away games in the Champions League proper.
There are some familiar faces on show, as striker Richmond Boakye played for Genoa, Sassuolo, Juventus and Atalanta.
Midfielder Nenad Krsticic was at Sampdoria for six years, while Marko Marin had a very brief spell on loan at Fiorentina.
El Fardu Nabouhane is the form man, scoring five goals in his last three competitive games, and he startd despite a slight injury.
Crvena Zvezda: Borjan; Stojkovic, Savic, Degenek, Rodic; Jovicic, Krsticic; Ben Nabouhane, Causac, Marin; Boakye
Crvena Zvezda bench: Popovic, Pavkov, Ebecillo, Babic, Simic, Jovancic, Gobeljic
Napoli: Ospina; Hysaj, Albiol, Koulibaly, Mario Rui; Allan, Zielinski, Fabian; Callejon, Milik, Insigne
Napoli bench: Karnezis, Luperto, Maksimovic, Hamsik, Rog, Ounas, Mertens
Ref: Marciniak (POL)