After a poor season that saw them sack their second manager, Napoli are looking for a fresh start as they face Barcelona in the Champions League. The Italian champions are ninth in Serie A and in a worse position than Rudy Garcia, the first victim of this poor campaign, with Walter Mazzarri being sacked on Monday night after just three months in charge. To replace him, outspoken Napoli boss Aurelio De Laurentiis has chosen Slovakian coach Francesco Calzona, who has the daunting task of taking Barca home to his first match in charge of the top-tier club.
As well as being a glamorous match, Wednesday’s last 16, first leg tie is an important match for Napoli as the competition is their only chance to take some glory from a season in which their defense of a historic third league title has been a long time coming. has ended. ,
Napoli are 27 points behind league leaders Inter Milan and their chances of qualifying for next season’s revamped Champions League are slim, even if Italy clinch fifth place.
Calzona’s new side are nine points behind both fourth-placed Atalanta and fifth-placed Bologna, and show little sign of being able to close that gap, having failed to score in nine of Mazzarri’s matches in all competitions. Have met.
But Victor Osimhen should be newly available as he continued his return to training on Monday following the Africa Cup of Nations.
Before being dismissed, Mazzarri said he was “hopeful” that Osimhen would be able to start against Barça as Napoli struggled to score.
“It’s always painful to sack a friend,” De Laurentiis said in a brief interview with Sky Sports on Monday, but Mazzarri has won only four of 12 Serie A matches since taking over, collecting 15 points.
That’s less than the 21 that Garcia had achieved in his 12 league matches in charge, with Napoli fourth on aggregate when the Frenchman was dismissed.
Calzona, who has led Slovakia to Euro 2024, has been accused by De Laurentiis of giving “something extra” to the army of Napoli fans to lure him back.
The 55-year-old faces a big job at the club where he was assistant under Maurizio Sarri and during Luciano Spalletti’s trophy-less first season with the club.
Calzona, 55, will reportedly continue his work with Slovakia, as well as try to drag Napoli back up the table after a disappointing end to Mazzarri’s brief second stint in charge of southern Italy’s biggest club.
Mazzarri led Napoli out of the slump between 2009 and 2013, winning the Italian Cup and capturing the club’s first trophy in two decades.
He left in May 2013 after finishing second in Italy’s top flight with an exciting team that included Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik and Edinson Cavani in attack.
Now Napoli have tasked a former assistant with salvaging something from this season, a choice unlikely to inspire fans who have watched their team crash and burn from the highest heights.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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