What will Napoli's starting line-up be against Eintracht Frankfurt?
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Throughout this campaign, Napoli have been absolutely phenomenal. Luciano Spalletti’s Neapolitans are 15 points clear at the top of Serie A and steamrolling their way to a third ever Scudetto. It would be the first and only title outside of the Diego Maradona era and, quite frankly, it will lead to some absolute carnage and chaos on the streets of Naples.
They come into this UEFA Champions League Last 16 first-leg in Germany against Eintracht Frankfurt on the back of a 2-0 win away at Sassuolo all the way back on Friday evening so any rotation is extremely unlikely.
With the English and Spanish league leaders not in the UEFA Champions League knockouts, the German leaders struggling for form and in a six-horse title race and the French league leaders also struggling for form since Christmas, Napoli will fancy their chances of going deep into this competition, especially with the likelihood of being able to almost entirely rotate their eleven with the title looking likely to be wrapped up by mid-to-late April.
Defence, which is arguably the weakest part of Napoli’s side on paper in terms of personnel, has been compensated for with a simply magnificent style of football that mixes technical brilliance, tactical intelligence and an aggressive intensity, both in and out of possession, that allows the defence to be relatively untroubled for the majority of the time.
There were a couple of tweaks made to Napoli’s starting eleven at the weekend, with Mathias Olivera starting at left-back, ahead of Mario Rui. It is personal preference really for Spalletti, with both players being fairly even in terms of ability. Rui is perhaps more defensively solid so may be the preferred pick in a European knockout tie. The rest of the defence is expected to remain the same with the impressive Kim Min-jae alongside Amir Rrahmani and Giovanni Di Lorenzo, one of their key men throughout the campaign, at right-back.
In midfield, Eljif Elmas began the last match at Sassuolo but he would be expected to drop out for the ‘Polish De Bruyne’, Piotr Zielinski. The Polish international allows Napoli’s system to switch fluidly from a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 with himself pushing up alongside the two wingers, behind the striker.
Alongside Zielinski, or potentially Elmas, will be the solid foundation of Stanislav Lobotka and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa. The Slovak and Cameroonian duo have provided the platform for the attacking players to thrive this season.
Those attacking players almost pick themselves with a well constructed hierarchy formed within the squad. The main three starters behind Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the left, Victor Osimhen through the middle and, usually, Hirving Lozano on the right but the drop from Lozano to Matteo Politano who started in the league the other day, is not as great as the drop between Kvarataskhelia and Osimhen’s replacements. That said, both Giacomo Raspadori and Giovanni Simeone consistently contribute when called upon.
Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen are the jewels in Napoli’s crown this season and their talents appear unmatched by most clubs across the continent. Napoli’s key concern for this tie will be dealing with the intensity that Frankfurt will offer and did offer in their UEFA Europa League run last season. However, any opponent of Napoli will be fearful of those two up top.
PREDICTED XI (4-3-3): Meret; Di Lorenzo, Kim, Rrahmani, Rui; Lobotka, Zambo Anguissa, Elmas; Lozano, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia
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