Napoli vs Spartak Moscow

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is the venue as Napoli look to kick-start their 2021/22 UEFA Europa League Group C campaign against lowly Spartak Moscow.

Napoli bridged a two-goal deficit in the final half an hour of play to hold Leicester City to a 2-2 away draw in their Europa League opener, making them undefeated in 15 of their last 16 matches in the competition’s group stage. Since that stalemate, Luciano Spalletti’s men have racked up a three-game winning streak in Serie A, returning an intimidating +10 goal difference in the process (GF:10, GA:0). The ‘Partenopei’ have turned their home venue into a fortress, suffering just a single competitive loss at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in 2021 while going unbeaten in their last 18 matches here (W14, D4). Furthermore, Napoli’s impressive home record stretches into the Europa League as well, with the Italians losing just one of their previous nine home games in the competition’s group phase (W7, D1).

In the meantime, Spartak Moscow slumped at home against Legia in their opening Group C fixture, suffering a late 1-0 defeat, which was the first of their two 1-0 reverses in their last three competitive outings (W1). Going into this round as overwhelming outsiders, the Russians must defy their embarrassing recent European record away from home to improve their humiliating 0% win percentage across their last seven fixtures against Italian clubs (D1, L6). Indeed, Rui Vitoria’s men have picked up just two wins in their previous 19 away matches in major European competitions (D6, L11), most recently beating Thun in August 2019. Adding to a sizeable list of concerns, they are winless in their last nine away group stage games in European action (D2, L7), drawing a blank in the most recent four.