Napoli welcome the visitors Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League Play-offs – 1/8 Finals. The match will be held on Thursday, March, 7th, at the Stadio San Paolo (Naples).
The hosting Napoli are the vice-champions and the vice-leaders in their national league. They’ve been very close to the gold medals over the last five years, but took the second and the third tiers, failing to overcome Juventus. Thus, in the last round at home, they lost to Juventus again, 1:2. Now they sit second, featuring not many chances to succeed Juve. Will they win Red Bull Salzburg in the Europa League? We are not quite sure of this…
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It’s been yet the second season in a row that the ‘Red Bulls’ present quite a powerful outfit in the European competitions. Last year, they progressed to the Europa League semi-final in which they lost to Marseille only in the extra-time. This year, Salzburg steamrolled their group dropping no point there, while they faced both Leipzig and Celtic. In the 1/16 final, having conceded to Brugge out, 1:2, they smashed them at home, 4:0. Therefore, the Austrian side are not that simple as they appear to bookies who offer the odds of over 6 on their win.
The ‘Bulls’ will hardly attain a victory in Naples. Indeed, their record is impressive, the form is blistering, they are not afraid of heavyweights, but the class of the Italian football is much higher than the one of Brugge defeated by Salzburg, and the one of Salzburg themselves. This will definitely have a say tomorrow; but the travelers are rather capable of demonstrating solid performance and going with a chance for overall success in the two-leg clash. The Italians dropped to the Europa League from the Champions League wherein they took the third place in the group. Over the span of six rounds, they were victors by a goal margin of over one goal only once – against Crvena Zvezda. Also, three days ahead of the kick-off, Napoli featured an exhaustive match against Juventus in which they underplayed half of the half-time and failed to score a penalty losing with a scoreline of 1:2 six minutes before the whistle. So, the hosts are not only exhausted but not very high-spirited either. Therefore, the Austrians may end in a draw. Even if they lost though, the defeat will not be by a great goal-margin.
Prediction for the match: Red Bull Salzburg to win with a +1.5 handicap.
