Napoli begin their Europa League campaign as take on Czech champions Sparta Prague at the San Paolo on Thursday night.
Both sides dropped out of the Champions League, with Napoli being knocked out 4-2 on aggregate by Athletic Club, while Sparta Prague were eliminated on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate draw with Swedish side Malmö.
Napoli haven’t made the best of starts to the season, with that elimination being followed up by a home defeat to Chievo at the weekend, a game in which the Partenopei took 33 shots, nine of which were on target, but still drew a blank.
Meanwhile, Sparta sit second in the Czech Synot Liga, one point behind Viktoria Plzen with seven games played. However, like Napoli the Rudí have cause for concern with their start to the league season, drawing away to SK Teplice at the weekend, and losing to local rivals Dukla Prague of Half Man Half Biscuit fame in August.
Napoli will not wish to dwell on their last meeting with a Czech side at the San Paolo. In Europa League round of 32 in 2012/2013, Napoli met the aforementioned Viktoria Plzen. Despite boasting the likes of Edinson Cavani, Goran Pandev and Morgan De Sanctis in their starting line-up, Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli went down 3-0 to the Czechs with a late goal from substitute Stanislav Tecl adding to strikes from Vladimír Darida and František Rajtoral.
The last time Sparta Prague travelled to Italy, they managed a 2-2 draw with Palermo in the 2010/2011 Europa League group stages Jiri Kladrubsky and Juraj Kucka cancelling out goals from Nicola Rigoni and Mauricio Pinilla of Palermo.
Napoli could be without Gonzalo Higuain, as the player picked up a slight knock in the loss to Chievo. The injury is not serious, but Benitez may choose to give Michu or Duván Zapata the nod up front as a precautionary meausure.
Sparta will be looking to David Lafata to continue the form which saw him score a hat-trick in Champions League play-off with Malmö, and five goals in the previous round against Levadia Tallinn.
Expected Starting XIs
Napoli – Rafael; Maggio, Albiol, Koulibaly, Zuniga; Inler, Jorginho, Mertens, Hamsik, Insigne; Zapata
Sparta Prague – Bicik; Kaderábe, Kovac, Holek, Costa; Matejovský, Marecek; Vacek, Krejci, Dckal; Hušbauer
