The Napoli coach spoke to the media on the eve of Napoli’s Champions League opener
“Every game starts at 0-0, but clearly Arsenal are favourites. We’ll need to show our strength and ability to be competitive. We’ll approach the game with determination and pride as we try to get a positive result.”
Max Allegri spoke to the media on the eve of Napoli’s opening game in the league phase of the Champions League.
“We’re starting a different competition tomorrow. It’s effectively a mini-tournament made up of eight games and we know we’re facing the Premier League champions and the Champions League runners-up. [Mikel] Arteta has done an extraordinary job. Arsenal are a complete team that create a lot and also concede very few goals. Arteta has managed to instil a winning mentality in his team.
“It was a very good game in Milan. Unfortunately, we lost because of a few naive mistakes. We have to turn over a new leaf. We face a different challenge tomorrow. We’ll need to put in a technically excellent performance and be able to defend better than we did against Como and Inter.”
Will there be any changes to the line-up or tactics?
“[Frank] Anguissa won’t be involved. That’s all I can say about the line-up. We’ll assess the players’ overall condition tomorrow morning.”
What kind of Champions League campaign are you expecting for Napoli?
“We have to take it one step at a time, knowing that we need to achieve a good points tally by the end. The Champions League is an ambition we all have to share and one that’ll drive us forward.”
