“I’d love to play against Manchester United at Old Trafford,” Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri told reporters when asked who he would like to face in the group stages of the Champions League. The Partenopei had just completed a 4-0 aggregate victory over Ligue 1 side Nice, their eye-catching style of football alerting neutral viewers of the threat they may pose post-qualification.
Even Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri gushed about his opponents after they were knocked out, further emphasising their growing reputation outside of Italy. “Napoli are a great side who play really fluid football,” the Ivorian told reporters. “In my view, they are one of the top five teams in Europe. We’re disappointed because the atmosphere in the stadium was incredible.”
So perhaps Jose Mourinho would be worried if he were indeed to come up against the Neapolitan outfit in the group stages. After losing to Real Madrid last year, Sarri has managed to keep his entire squad intact, and a full pre-season seems to have further enhanced a team that already had telepathic awareness in terms of their passing play.
“The draw for this preliminary round was not easy and I want to thank the players for showing how much they care about Napoli,” the boss continued in the same interview. “Some could have been on vacation at the start of July, but they opted out of extra time off to train with the team.”
A key part of that setup on Tuesday was Lorenzo Insigne, the homegrown star firing in his 50th goal for Napoli in all competitions against Nice in a star performance. The 5”4’ winger headed into the match in superb form, having recorded more shots on target (9), assists (2), chances created (7) and ball recoveries (16) than any of his team-mates in the opening two matches.
His form has inevitably garnered attention from the media, the player even linked with interest from Barcelona, but he did his best to deflect any such rumours after the match. "I thank you for the compliments, but I want to keep doing well with this shirt because I’ve always wanted it," he told Mediaset Premium. "Barcelona is the dream for everyone but for now I have the dream of Naples with me."
But there was an unsung star grafting away in midfield that night that allowed the likes of Insigne to shine. Jorginho was handed the man-of-the-match award by Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport, the Italian international at the heart of Napoli’s passing machine. In that one encounter, the 25-year-old successfully found a team-mate with 94 of his 110 passes, recovering the ball no less than 20 times.
Despite the stellar form of his players, Sarri was keen to keep their feet on the ground. “It would’ve been really negative if we had missed out on the Champions League,” he continued. “Now we’ve got to keep the euphoria in check, because that can lead us down the wrong path. These lads deserved the Champions League, though.”
Now fully entitled to take their place among Europe’s elite clubs, captain Marek Hamsik echoed those sentiments on his official website after the match. “We were able to prove we’re a great team and we deserved to qualify for the Champions League,” he wrote. “We proved on the pitch that our place is among the best teams on the Old Continent. We’ll see how the draw goes, now we have our moment to celebrate but then we have to focus on Sunday’s game with Atalanta.”
Whether it be Sarri’s preference of Manchester United in the draw that takes place later today or an entirely different club altogether, those drawn to face his side would do well to take them seriously. They may be serial runners-up to Juventus in the league, but Napoli have continued to improve over the summer and are a force to be reckoned with in Europe.
