Rangers take on Napoli in their second Champions League Group A game at Ibrox on Wednesday night.
The Gers lost 4-0 to Ajax in Amsterdam in their opener last week and here, we take a look at their next opponents.
Form
Napoli, who finished third in Serie A last season behind champions AC Milan and Inter Milan, got their Champions League campaign off to a terrific start with a 4-1 win over last season’s finalists Liverpool at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium.
Luciano Spalletti’s side have also got off to an impressive start to their domestic season.
Napoli are unbeaten in six Serie A fixtures with four wins and two draws and their 1-0 home win over Spezia on Saturday – thanks to a last-minute goal by striker Giacomo Raspadori – left them ahead of Atalanta and AC Milan at the top of the table on goal difference.
Manager
Spalletti’s coaching career started in the mid-1990s at Empoli, one of the clubs he played for as a midfielder.
The 63-year-old has been boss at Sampdoria, Udinese, Roma – where he won the Coppa Italia in 2006–07 and 2007–08 – and Inter Milan in his homeland, and had a five-year spell as head coach of Zenit St Petersburg, where he won the Russian Premier League twice.
Spalletti joined Napoli in May 2021, after two years away from management, replacing former Rangers player Gennaro Gattuso.
Players
Napoli boasts players from all over the world but their captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, was in the Italy side that won Euro 2020. Goalkeeper Alex Meret was in the squad but did not play.
Experienced Poland international Piotr Zielinski, who scored twice against Liverpool, has been at Napoli since 2016.
Nigeria star Victor Osimhen normally leads the line but is ruled out through injury. Giovanni Simeone, son of former Argentina international Diego Simeone, could replace him.
The Serie A side recruited heavily in the summer. New faces include Cameroon midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa from Fulham, Uruguay left-back Mathias Olivera, who joined from Getafe, South Korea international Kim Min-jae signed from Fenerbahce, Georgia international Khvicha Kvaratskhelia arrived from Dinamo Batumi while France midfielder Tanguy Ndombele is on loan from Tottenham.
European pedigree
Napoli have won Serie A twice, in 1986–87 and 1989–90 during the time of Diego Maradona, and are six-times Coppa Italia winners – 1962, 1976, 1987, 2012, 2014 and 2020. However. they have been successful only once in Europe, lifting the UEFA Cup in 1989 with their Argentina superstar Maradona again the inspiration.
They overcame PAOK, Lokomotive Leipzig, Bordeaux, Serie A rivals Juventus and Bayern Munich on their way to the final, where they beat Bundesliga side Stuttgart over two legs.
Maradona scored with a penalty as Napoli came from a goal down to win 2-1 in the first leg and the return game in the Neckarstadion ended 3-3 for a 5-4 aggregate win for the Italian outfit.
