Troubled Napoli staring at Champions League elimination against Chelsea

MILAN – Napoli are on the brink of being eliminated from the Champions League, as the troubled Italian club face Chelsea on Jan 28 racked by a deep injury crisis and a faltering Serie A title defence.

Sat just inside the elimination zone on only eight points from seven matches after last week’s miserable 1-1 draw at FC Copenhagen, Napoli must beat Chelsea to stand a chance of eking out a place in February’s play-offs.

That will be no easy task with the Blues, Antonio Conte’s former club, likely needing a win to stay in the top eight and bag direct qualification for the last 16.

And Napoli come into the game still stinging from a 3-0 defeat at Juventus which left the Italian champions nine points behind Serie A leaders Inter Milan.

The loss on Jan 25 was a big slap in the face for Napoli and Juve icon Conte, who was full of praise for his players, who have had to dig deep in the face of a host of injuries.

“We even won the Italian Super Cup in an emergency, an emergency which has got even worse,” he said.

“The boys need big support from the fans... We’re going through a difficult period and I expect the fans to get behind the team.”

Conte’s bid to become the first Napoli coach to win back-to-back Serie A titles has been hampered by fitness problems in his squad right from the start of the season.

It started with Romelu Lukaku suffering a hamstring injury in pre-season which kept him out of action until the 79th minute of the Jan 25 loss.

Lukaku replaced academy graduate Antonio Vergara, who played in place of Italy international Matteo Politano, while new signing Giovane made his debut as a substitute, with Conte later saying he had not even seen him train.

Conte has also lost giant goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic to a thigh issue while winger David Neres flew to London for ankle surgery on Jan 26, which will likely keep the Brazilian out until April.

Kevin de Bruyne has been out since October and will not be back until the Spring after surgery on his thigh, while another key midfielder in Andre-Frank Anguissa was supposed to be back from hamstring injury but is now suffering from back problems.

“We know that we’re navigating in open waters with very high waves but we’re not getting off the boat,” added Conte. “We’re still here, made stronger by the fact that we want to keep fighting with all our might, even with the absurd situation that we’re in.

“Let’s be clear here, they’re jeopardising their physical health. They’re playing every three days, not training, and the same players have to play high-intensity football because we don’t have any chance to rotate.”

The only good news for Conte is the return of Lukaku, giving the Belgium striker the chance to get back at Chelsea, where he failed so miserably after a big-money move in 2021. AFP