Mario Rui warns that if Napoli don’t beat Spezia today in Serie A, the Champions League domination over Liverpool will ‘lose importance.’
It kicks off at 14.00 UK time (13.00 GMT).
The Partenopei are fired up after a 4-1 Champions League triumph over Liverpool midweek, though they also lost Victor Osimhen to injury.
Spezia are not to be taken for granted, as they won the last two trips to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
“Physically the team is in good place, we know it will be a very difficult game, as Spezia caused us a lot of problems here in recent years,” Mario Rui told DAZN.
“We need to repeat the attitude of Wednesday’s match, because if we don’t win, then the victory over Liverpool loses importance.”
Over the years, Napoli have shown many difficulties against the so-called minnows of Serie A, struggling to break them down a lot more than the bigger and more openly attacking sides like Liverpool.
“The explanation is simple for our lack of consistency, that every match has its own difficulties and the small clubs arrange their tactics to frustrate us.”
Napoli have already stalled twice this season against Fiorentina and Lecce, back-to-back stalemates ended by a 2-1 victory away to Lazio.