Napoli’s coach Walter Mazzarri will certainly hope that the lesson Barcelona gave them in the Gamper Trophy haven been learned well by his players as they obviously needed it if they are eying to get through from Champions League group stage this summer.
In a draw held on Thursday evening, August 25, the Partenopei are being paired in Group A with tough opponents such as Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Villareal, a composition which pretty much earned the Group of Death in this edition of the competition.
Napoli will definitely needs more than the mystical San Paolo effect to overcome the opponents they will be facing as even last season they didn’t managed to beat Villarreal in the Europa League. This drawing could gave a really bad start for the Southern Italian side’s return campaign in the Champions League as they could easily finished bottom of their group and simply ended their European journey before January 2012.
Meanwhile, two other Serie A representatives, Ac Milan and Inter Milan both have a pretty doable challenges, although the Rossoneri must faced Barcelona’s challenge on their group but aside from the Catalan, other teams on Group H, BATE Borisov along with Viktoria Plzen are beatable for the Italian champions. Inter have a much better drawing as on paper they won’t face much difficulties in facing the likes of CSKA Moscow, Lille and also Trabzonspor.
Although a passage for the knock out round seems destined for the two Milanese clubs, but they must not get complacent with their chances as minnows teams can always provide surprises especially when being underestimated. While, Napoli must really give their all in every matches if they want to have a sniff at advancing from the group stage, their lack of experience in playing at high level competitions such as the Champions League obviously isn’t helping their case, although chances are definitely still open for the Partenopei.
Groups for Serie A representatives in the Champions League
Group A
Bayern Munich
Villarreal
Manchester City
Napoli
Group B
Inter
CSKA Moscow
Lille
Trabzonspor
Group H
Barcelona
Milan
BATE Borisov
Viktoria Plzen
photo credit: americanistadechiapas
