Overshadowed by the great classic at Anfield, the first round of 16 assault at Deutsche Bank Park between Eintracht and Napoli will serve to show if the current Europa League champion and intractable leader of Serie A is capable of confirming his potential in the great continental competition.
The Neapolitan team is enjoying one of the happiest, most solid and reliable seasons in its history. He walks in his country with no less than 15 points ahead of second-placed Inter, after signing 20 wins, two draws and only one defeat. And in Europe, Luciano Spalletti’s squad also had an excellent group stage in which they only lost on the last day against Liverpool after leading an immaculate career with five wins and 20 goals scored, more than anyone else in this League of Champions.
Eintracht, sixth in the Bundesliga five points behind leaders Bayern, Dortmund and Unión Berlin, opens in a Champions League tie. It is the eleventh German club to achieve it and it does so after finishing second in Group D, only surpassed by Tottenham. Despite losing to Sporting de Portugal and Spurs, with whom they also drew in Germany, the Teutonic team came back with two wins in their last two games against Olympique de Marseille and the Portuguese team.
third showdown
Both clubs boast of being on a roll. The Parthenopean have kept a clean sheet in four of the last five games, conceding just one goal against Roma, and have scored 12 goals. And the representative club of the commercial and financial center of Germany, the seat city of the European Central Bank, has only lost to Cologne after the break for the World Cup in Qatar.
They meet for the third time in their history after meeting in the round of 16 of the 94-95 UEFA Cup. Then, the Eagles won by the minimum in their nest and in San Paolo. Napoli, however, clings to their successes in the last two games away from home against Germans: 4-1 at Wolfsburg in 2015 and 2-0 at RB Leipzig in 2018.