Leicester City vs Napoli

Leicester City and Napoli will exchange tackles at the King Power Stadium in one of the most exciting match-ups in the Europa League group stage this term.

A late slump down the final stretch of last season saw Leicester finish fifth in the Premier League standings and qualify for the Europa League group stages for the second successive year for the first time in the club’s history. Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers is intent on maintaining his 100% survival rate across his three Europa League group stage campaigns in permanent charge. The Northern Irishman can write history here as the ‘Foxes’ prepare to meet Italian opposition in UEFA-sanctioned fixture for the first time. Almost unplayable at the King Power Stadium, the English giants have suffered just two defeats in their 13 home matches across major European competitions (W8, D3), albeit one of them came in their most recent Europa League outing here. But Leicester’s inconsistency at the beginning of this Premier League campaign has seen them alternate between winning (2) and losing (2) in their first four league matches.

On the other hand, Napoli performed an astonishing second-half comeback to beat arch-rivals Juventus 2-1 at home at the weekend and extend their 100% start to this Serie A season (W3). Seeking their first major European trophy since 1989, the ‘Partenopei’ are among warm favorites to conquer the competition this season. Overcoming the group stage should be an easy part, considering they’ve successfully navigated all of their previous five Europa League group phase campaigns. However, they have yet to taste victory on English soil, having lost eight of their ten overall European visits to the country (D2). Across the previous three Europa League group stage triumphs, the Italians went down just once (W6, D2, L1), suggesting they could ease past Group C, especially if they start fast. Indeed, they have lost only one of their last 15 group stage matches in this competition (W11, D3).