Rafael Benitez is wary of Wolfsburg’s incredible home form as he takes his Napoli side to the Volkswagen Arena for Thursday’s Europa League quarter-final first leg.
Die Wolfe have taken 38 points from a possible 42 at home in the Bundesliga and have only lost once at home in their Europa League run to the last eight, having disposed of Roberto Mancini’s Inter last month.
“It’s an important game, we are in the quarter-finals but they are at home where they have always done well,” the former Liverpool coach told reporters ahead of the match.
“At present Wolfsburg are very strong but we know their best players: [Bas] Dost, [Kevin] De Bruyne, Naldo in defence and Luiz Gustavo who plays like a quarter-back in the middle – I actually tried to sign him earlier in my career.
Napoli have been on a rough-patch of form lately, but ended a win-less streak of five matches by beating Fiorentina 3-0 at the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday, a result that Benitez believes was a result of sticking to his original game-plan.
“We approach every game with the same idea,” he continued. “We played well [against Fiorentina] but we did better against Roma and Lazio, but football is like that.
The Spaniard was also asked about his effect on the team: “After winning two cups I think there have been many positive things, but we were undeservedly knocked out of the Coppa Italia so will try to win the remaining games.”
