Leicester vs Napoli: Tricky test in store for Foxes in UEL opener

Leicester City’s Europa League campaign will start with a tough examination, as the Foxes will host high-flying Napoli on Thursday evening. Both teams are considered among the favorites to win European club football’s secondary competition, and many eyes will be on this game due to the overall qualify of both sides. Leicester come into this match having suffered a narrow 1-0 loss to Manchester City at the weekend, which leaves Brendan Rodgers’s men in ninth spot, having alternated between a win and a draw since the 2021/22 Premier League season got underway last month.

The Foxes are hoping for a better run in the Europa League this time around, having seen their campaign end abruptly last year when they were beaten 2-0 on aggregate by Eastern European outfit Slavia Prague in the round of 32. They were painfully close to actually qualifying for the Champions League, only to narrowly miss out as Chelsea pipped them to fourth spot, and even if they had secured fourth, the Blues would still qualify by virtue of winning last season’s Champions League. In any case, Leicester City will hope to really put themselves forwards as serious challengers for what would be their first-ever European title should they get to the final.

This will be Leicester’s first ever meeting with an Italian side in any European competition, and certainly, they will hope to get a positive result against arguably their toughest opponents in their quartet, with Polish champs Legia and Russian outfit Spartak Moscow completing Group C. Their upcoming opponents Napoili, meanwhile will arrive boasting a solid record in this competition. Interestingly, they also finished in fifth spot and were narrowly beaten to a Champions League berth as Juventus managed to secure fourth at their expense.

So far, the Partenopei are unbeaten in their last seven away Europa League matches, with wins in five of those. They’re also one of a handful of clubs featuring who have actually won the cup, back when it was called simply the UEFA Cup and Diego Maradona was part of that 1989-winning side.

However, Napoli will have to deal with some major injury worries. Skipper Lorenzo Insigne appears to have suffered a knee or other muscular injury during his team’s 2-1 win over Juventus, and had to be subbed off. In addition, Dries Mertens, who’s Napoli’s all-time top marksman is still out injured, along with defender Faouzi Ghoulam. Leicester, by contrast, don’t have as many injury concerns, although Rodgers will have to decide whether to stick with the underperforming James Maddison, who’s failed to score for months now, or give others like Patson Daka or Kelechi Iheanacho a chance to shine.