Troubled Napoli staring at Champions League elimination against Chelsea

Napoli are on the brink of being eliminated from the Champions League as the troubled Italian club face Chelsea on Wednesday racked by a deep injury crisis and a faltering Serie A title defence.

Sat just inside the elimination zone on only eight points from seven matches after last week’s miserable 1-1 draw at FC Copenhagen, Napoli must beat Chelsea to scrape a place in next month’s play-offs.

That will be no easy task with the Blues, Antonio Conte’s former club, needing a win to stay in the top eight and bag direct qualification for the last 16.

And Napoli come into the game still stinging from a 3-0 defeat at Juventus which left the Italian champions nine points behind current Serie A leaders Inter Milan.

Sunday’s loss in Turin was a big slap in the face for Napoli and Juve icon Conte, who was full of praise for his players who have had to dig deep in the face of a host injuries.

“Before today the last match we’d lost was against Udinese (on December 14). We even won the Italian Super Cup in an emergency, an emergency which has got even worse,” Conte told DAZN on Sunday.

“The boys need big support from the fans… We’re going through a difficult period and I expect the fans to get behind the team.”

Conte’s bid to become the first Napoli coach to win back-to-back Serie A titles has been hampered by physical problems in his squad right from the start of the season.

It started with Romelu Lukaku suffering a hamstring injury in pre-season which kept him out of action until the 79th minute of Sunday’s loss.

High seas

Lukaku replaced academy graduate Antonio Vergara who played in place of Italy international Matteo Politano, while new signing Giovane made his debut as a substitute, with Conte later saying he hadn’t even seen him train.

Conte has also lost giant goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic to a hamstring knock while winger David Neres flew to London for ankle surgery on Monday which will likely keep the Brazilian out until April.

Kevin De Bruyne has been out since October and won’t be back until the Spring after surgery on his right hamstring, while another key midfielder in Andre-Frank Anguissa was supposed to be back on Sunday from another hamstring injury but was left out due to back problems.

“We know that we’re navigating in open waters with very high waves but we’re not getting off the boat,” said Conte.

“We’re still here, made stronger by the fact that we want to keep fighting with all our might even with the absurd situation that we’re in.

“These boys are serious, they’re giving everything and I see what they’re doing, what they have to put up with, what they’re risking, because let’s be clear here, they’re jeopardising their physical health.

“They’re playing every three days, not training, and the same players have to play high-intensity football because we don’t have any chance to rotate.”

The only good news for Conte is the return of Lukaku who has replaced De Bruyne in Napoli’s European squad, giving the Belgium striker the chance to get back at Chelsea where he failed so miserably four years ago.

Last season 11 points was enough to avoid elimination so a win will almost certainly get Napoli through and provide some relief to a creaking team.