Arsenal’s manager UNAI EMERY fears Arsenal are in for one of the
longest nights of their lives against Napoli – and has warned them to be brave.
The Gunners boss
expects an explosive atmosphere in front of a ferocious 60,000 crowd at the
notorious Stadio San Paolo, which is built on volcanic rock.
But he believes his side are ready for it as they look to
protect a 2-0 lead from the first leg and march on to the semi-finals.
Emery said: “We
must play with courage and also intelligence. We know 90 minutes here can be
long. But we want to play without thinking about the first leg.
“We know it’s going
to be a different match. We are waiting for them their best performance, their
best capacity here with their supporters, in their stadium, with the
atmosphere.
“They have a lot of
players with a big quality to push against us and give us a lot of problems but
we also have the players to fight against them with our quality.”
Napoli, UEFA Cup
winner way back in the days of Diego Maradona in 1989, are unbeaten at home in
Europe this season.
They have won four
games and drawn the other in this famous stadium, scoring ten goals and
conceding only two, and beat Liverpool here in October in the Champions League.
They exited that
competition as the best third-placed team of the group stage, and in seven
games against Premier League opposition here they have won five.
By contrast,
Arsenal have collapsed repeatedly on the road this season and have lost BOTH
their away games in the knockout stages so far, to Rennes and BATE Borisov.
Defender Sokratis
Papastathopoulos knows all about the reputation of Napoli’s fearsome fanbase
from a four-year spell playing in Italy for Genoa and AC Milan.
Comments
Post a Comment