Surely! It’s obvious; Napoli would most probably win the Scudetto, but the question here is not about the Italian Serie A, it’s the champion of the champion’s trophy: the UEFA Champions League! It’s not crazy to imagine, there are pointers.
First, Napoli, alongside teams like City, United, Arsenal andBarcelona are playing the most beautiful football in their various domestic leagues; they are convincing on the field of play, but that’s not all there is to them, let’s well look at the numbers:
Napoli did not lose a single Serie A game for their first 23 games this season; they have an 84% win rate, accumulating 2.6 points per game, which translates to 65 points from 25 games, the highest in Europe’s top 5 leagues.
The last time they won the Scudetto was during the days of Maradona in the 1989-1990 season.
Napoli have been hyped this season, but with the feats they are putting up, it is not just enough compared to the accolades that brilliant sides like Arsenal and United are getting. It is commonsensical to however doubt whether they can recreate that brilliance all the way through in Europe. A huge reason to edge towards such a doubt about them may be that the quality of the Serie A is arguably lower to the Laliga Santander and the English Premier League. That may also be the reason why they have a very huge chance of clinching the continental trophy.
This is because, there has bee a drop in standards ofEuropean giants like Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester City and even Liverpool. Real are currently 9 points behind league leaders Barcelona; Chelsea still struggling to find a footing under Potter and City not being as icy as they used to be under Pep Guardiola.
Other top performing teams like Manchester United, Barcelona, Arsenal, Paris Saint German and Borussia Dortmund are all out of the competition. The only real threat left in the competition are Bayern Munich.
Napoli have a terrifying football that they have mastered under their boss, Luciano Spalleti. AC Milan legend, Ruud Gullit described their football style as. “fast, rapid and radical”.
One of the mesmerizing pointers to Napoli’s unprecedented brilliant run is that they score a lot of goals. One of their Champions League group stage heroics that went under the radar is that they amassed a total of 20 goals in a group that consists of Ajax and Liverpool, beating the Reds 4-1 in one of their encounters.
The meteoric rise of spectacular players like Osimehn, Kvaratskhelia have been noticed across the football world, but the performances of players like Lozano and Kim-Min Jae have gone unnoticed.
The Nigerian international, Osimehn, is one of the top performers in Europe presently. His ability to not just poach, but also hold-up play with his back to goal, make runs in-behind and play the ball at his feet is one finest in the continent presently.
These traits also pose him as a deadly dead-eye striker against any defense in Europe. His prowess with the finesse of Kvicha and the astute defending of Kim-Min Jae will come in handy against any team in Europe.
In recent years, there have been similarly entertaining teams in the champions league who have looked like they would pull off upsets by winning the Champions league but fell short. Teams like 2018/19 Ajax under ten Hag who displaced Real Madrid and Juventus from the competition, and the 2016/2017Monaco, who knocked out Manchester City, were brilliant but failed to clinch the Big Ol’ Ears.
It remains to be seen if Napoli can break the jinx and not just cement themselves as the Serie A leaders alone, but also as champions of Europe.
Akinjide Adebowale
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