Napoli will travel to Belgium to play against Club Brugge at the Jan Breydel Stadium on Thursday night in the Europa League.
Uefa has notified both clubs that the game will go ahead despite increased fears in security and after Belgium’s friendly against Spain was cancelled last week due to safety concerns.
Both teams go into this Group D fixture on the back of victories in their domestic leagues. The Blauw-Zwart won 3-0 on Saturday against Zulte Waregem in the Belgian Pro League while the Partenopei won 2-0 against Hellas Verona in Serie A.
Maurizio Sarri’s side have been in scintillating form in the Europa League and have already sealed qualification for the Round of 32, winning all four group matches so far while scoring 16 goals and conceding just once. Michel Preud’homme’s side are in third place in the group with four points and they are two points behind FC Midtjylland from Denmark.
The Napolitani won comfortably against the Belgian giants in round 1 with Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon both getting braces in the 5-0 win at the Stadio San Paolo. It was only the second time that Napoli had defeated an Belgian side in European competitions.
The first time was back in the 1976-77 European Cup Winners’ Cup when they played the reigning champions Anderlecht in the semi-finals. Napoli lost 2-0 in Belgium but they got a 1-0 win in Naples as a consolation. Club Brugge last defeated an Italian team back in October 2003, winning 1-0 against AC Milan at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza.
Napoli will be missing Manolo Gabbiadini with an ankle injury and Mertens with a thigh injury. Club Brugge won’t have Laurens De Bock available because of a ligament injury while Bjorn Engels and Bernie Ibini-Isei are long-term injury absentees for the Belgian side.
Form Guide: Brugge (W-W-W-W-W) Napoli (W-D-W-W-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Brugge: Bruzzese; Meunier, Mechele, Deswil, De Fauw; Claudemir, Vazquez, Simons; Gedoz, Diaby, Izquierdo
Napoli: Reina; Hysaj, Chiriches, Koulibaly, Ghoulam; David Lopez, Valdifiori, Hamsik; Callejon, Higuain, Insigne
Infographic from www.sporticos.com
