Four Italian sides are in the Europa League round of 32, two of them are up against Bundesliga outfits.
Napoli take on RB Leipzig at the San Paolo this evening, while Atalanta are in Germany to face Borussia Dortmund and the Yellow Wall.
The footballing rivalry between Italy and Germany is well known, so what chance to Serie A’s representatives have?
Words: Ramez Nathan
Four Italian sides are in the Europa League round of 32, two of them are up against Bundesliga outfits.
Napoli take on RB Leipzig at the San Paolo this evening, while Atalanta are in Germany to face Borussia Dortmund and the Yellow Wall.
The footballing rivalry between Italy and Germany is well known, so what chance to Serie A’s representatives have?
Words: Ramez Nathan
This will be the first tie between any of these teams and for RB Leipzig it is their Europa League debut and their first ever encounter with an Italian team.
After Napoli bowed down to Manchester City and Shakhtar, while Leipzig bowed down Besiktas and Porto, the two sides formed the only Europa League game featuring two teams that moved over from the Champions League.
Napoli have recorded four wins, two draws and three losses at home to German oppositions in European competitions, with their last victory coming against Borussia Dortmund in the last 2013-14 Champions League group stage.
When the competition was still called UEFA Cup, Napoli had won three matches against Bundesliga sides in the 1988-89 campaign, as that was their only European cup triumph till this day.
For the last five years, the Partenopei have been unbeaten on home turf in 13 fixtures winning nine and drawing three.
One the other hand Napoli failed to grab a home win in the Europa League Last 32 on three occasions and failed to qualify in any of these ties and Leipzig's Emil
Forsberg is familiar with knocking out Italians as he was featuring in Sweden's side that took Italy out of the 2018 World Cup qualifications.
While the unbeaten European Atalanta will be against Borussia Dortmund, the side that has so far failed to grab any European win this season, registering only two draws against APOEL in the Champions League group stage.
Coach Gian Piero Gasperini has shown how seriously he is taking the Europa league by beating Lyon to the first place in the group and crushing Everton 1-5 at Goodison Park to record Atalanta's biggest away win in Europe.
Dortmund have been knocked out by Italians on eight occasions, with their most recent against the Old Lady 5-1 on aggregate in the 2014-15 Champions League, and have gone through just three times.
They did, however, beat Juventus in the 1997 Champions League final.
Meanwhile Atalanta have had only one tie against a German side, when they defeated Koln 2-1 on aggregate back in their last European appearance in 1990-91.
Since the competition has been named UEFA Europa League, no Italian or German side managed to reach the competition's final. Can any of the remaining six sides break that jinx?