Napoli’s 8 Champions League ties: Conte faces Chelsea, De Bruyne back | OneFootball

The Monaco draw has handed Napoli a Champions League group with undeniable allure, featuring clashes that intertwine memories, historic encounters, and personal destinies. The tournament’s new format—with eight matches per team and a ban on clashes between clubs from the same country in the early rounds—has placed formidable opponents in the path of the Azzurri.

Champions League, Napoli discovers its 8 opponents: Conte faces Chelsea, De Bruyne returns to Manchester

The first name that stands out is Chelsea, a club that brings back memories of two intertwined stories. On one hand, there’s Antonio Conte, now at the helm of Napoli but Premier League champion with the Blues in 2017; on the other, the bitter night of 2012, when after a 3-1 win at the San Paolo with a Lavezzi brace and a Cavani goal, Chelsea overturned the tie at Stamford Bridge with a 4-1 victory, paving their way to the cup. For Azzurri fans, it’s a still-open wound that now becomes a chance for redemption. No less intriguing is the away match against Manchester City. In 2017, with Sarri on the bench, Napoli challenged Guardiola, showing flashes of spectacular football but ultimately losing. The undisputed star was Kevin De Bruyne, who is now the brightest signing of Napoli’s summer transfer window. The Belgian will return to the Etihad as an opponent, ready to face his former teammates in a match that will inevitably feel like a homecoming.

The second pot offers opponents with great European tradition. Benfica, already faced in 2016 with two Napoli victories, remains a formidable obstacle, while Eintracht Frankfurt brings sweeter memories: in 2023, it was Spalletti’s Napoli who eliminated the Germans with two wins that opened the doors to the quarterfinals. From the third pot come Sporting Lisbon, never officially faced before, and PSV Eindhoven, who in 2012 inflicted a double defeat on Mazzarri’s Napoli, with Mertens scoring a goal the year before his move to the shadow of Vesuvius.

Finally, the matches against Qarabag and Copenhagen seem the most manageable, but hide dangers: with the Danes, there was a previous meeting in 2014, when Higuaín scored a hat-trick at the San Paolo in the Europa League. A tough but fascinating schedule. For Conte, it will be a return to the past; for De Bruyne, a challenge at the heart of his career; for Napoli, the chance to write new pages of European history.

Andrea Alati

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.