Leipzig – Napoli

RB Leipzig welcomes Napoli in a second leg from the 1/16-finals of the Europa League. And they have a solid advantage from the first game in Naples.

Although they were labeled as one of the favourites for the trophy, since their inclusion in the competition from the Champions League, Napoli suffered a heavy 1-3 defeat in the first leg against RB Leipzig. The game at the Stadio San Paolo turned into a pure nightmare for the home team. Adam Ounas opened the score for Napoli, but two goals from Timo Werner and one from Bruma gave the Germans a huge advantage.

Now RB Leipzig are the big favourite for qualification for the next round, maybe surprising for many. Just like Napoli, RB Leipzig participated in the Champions League in the first half of the season, but they finished 3rd in their group and entered Europa League.

In the German Bundesliga RB Leipzig are currently 5th. They continue their fight for a Top 4 finish, because their goal is another qualification for the Champions League. They are on par with the 4th Bayer Leverkusen, so they are not that much away from their goal. They just need to keep their consistency as high as possible.

Napoli have a totally different goal right now – winning the Serie A. Maurizio Sarri’s team is leading the Serie A standings, having one point advantage in front of the champions Juventus. Maybe this explains why Napoli were so easily beaten by RB Leipzig in the first leg – they prefer to concentrate on the Serie A, because they really want to win the title this season.

The title race with Juve is going to be really intense. Both teams are rarely making any mistakes in the Calcio, which explains why Napoli want to concentrate entirely on the Serie A until the end of the season.