AN away game against opponents who are arguably the form team in Europe at the moment in their intimidating and notorious ground would fill the managers of most sides with a sense of deep foreboding.
Especially if, like Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Rangers just now, you have serious injury problems, those players who are fit are not performing well and your job is under serious threat as a result.
Yet, Van Bronckhorst could barely disguise his excitement when he arrived at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium here last night ahead of the Champions League encounter with Napoli this evening.
The Dutchman grew up in his native Netherlands in the 1980s worshipping the Argentinian great who the ramshackle arena is named after and was as giddy as a schoolboy as he stepped out onto the turf which his idol graced on so many occasions in his heyday with his charges.
“He means a lot to me,” he said, after a walkabout at the renowned Italian venue. “I remember the 1986 World Cup when I was 11. That was the first time I really saw him play a big tournament.
“I can also talk about the games Napoli played with Maradona against (Ruud) Gullit, (Frank) Rijkaard and (Marco) Van Basten (the Dutch internationalists who starred for the great AC Milan side of that era) at the time. I remember watching Rai 1 (the Italian television channel) on a Sunday afternoon.
“When I speak about him it’s only good memories and it’s good to see this stadium named after him after beautiful times at Napoli. It’s really nice to be in this city to see it. I was here with Feyenoord as well a few years ago and for me he is one of my idols from the past. And still is.”
They say that you should never meet your heroes - but Van Bronckhorst’s admiration for Maradona only increased after he encountered the South American superstar at the France ’98 finals.
“I think I met him twice,” he said. “Those are the moments in life when you see your idol up close and what he did for football was immense. I met him at the World Cup in 1998. We played Argentina and had just beat them in Marseille in the quarter-finals.
“We were waiting in the bus to go back to the hotel and we saw a lot of people coming. We knew someone was coming who was very, very important or very famous. And then Diego came on the Holland team bus and congratulated everyone for the result.
“For me, it showed his personality that he congratulated us for a semi-final place. For us it was a really nice moment to meet one of our biggest idols.”
Napoli - who won their only two Serie A titles and their only European trophy, the UEFA Cup, when Maradona played for them during the 1980s and 1990s – are currently experiencing their most successful spell since that halcyon era.
They are undefeated in the 2022/23 campaign, they are three points clear of Milan at the top of the league table, they have qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League and they will be bidding to record their 12th consecutive competitive victory for the first time in their 97 year history this evening.
Van Bronckhorst believes that Luciano Spalletti’s exciting and attacking young side are more than capable of emulating their past achievements both at home and abroad in the months ahead.
“The start they have had not only in Serie A, but in the Champions League is very, very strong,” he said. “It’s a team who you can see has a lot of confidence. They are already through to the next round in the Champions League.
“It is important for them to go well into the break because we have the World Cup. In Italy there is a break for almost two months so they want to continue that great form after the World Cup break.
“But it’s definitely a team that is capable of going really far in the Champions League. In the last eight, the last four, the teams are very, very strong, but the way they are going at the moment they don’t have to fear any team in Europe.”
So how does Van Bronckhorst halt them? Does he go on the defensive and field three centre backs like he did against Liverpool at Anfield? He admitted that is, despite Connor Goldson joining Filip Helander and John Souttar on the sidelines, a tactic which he could deploy.
Would he really be prepared to field Leon King, James Sands and Ben Davies against a front three that comprises Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Victor Osimhen and Hirving Lozano? He cannot risk moving John Lundstram back because he is missing Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara. But his charges have conceded 16 times in their previous four games and have netted just once.
“Leon (King) is better,” he said. “He felt sick on Saturday at half-time and that’s why we took him off. We have centre backs injured and they cannot play, but I still think we have players in the squad to play the same system.
“We don’t have many centre backs, but we can still play that way. The last 20, 25 minutes are the times you have to be very solid and make sure you are defending very well to not concede more goals.
‘The game management is very important. We are playing a team which is really fast and good with quality players all over the pitch. In these environments you have to be defensively quite solid. But still we have to find the moments to attack as well.
“If you come here and only defend for 90 minutes you are waiting for the damage to be done. We need to be solid, but take our moments to be brave as well.
“Of course, this is a team that who have won their last 11 games against really top opponents at Champions League level and in Serie A. But we know the opposition, we know their quality, and it’s also a chance for us to have a good performance against a really good team, like we did at home.”
