Manna: ‘Napoli wish we had played with normal number of injuries’
Giovanni Manna insists the Coppa Italia quarter-final against Como is ‘a very important competition,’ but he wishes Napoli had played this season ‘with a normal number of injuries.’
It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 20.00 GMT (21.00 CET).
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the Liveblog.
The winner will be decided after 90 minutes or go straight to a penalty shoot-out, as there is no extra time, to decide who faces Inter in the semi-final.
Como are well-rested, because their Serie A Week 24 fixture against Milan was rescheduled to February 18 due to San Siro being used for the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics opening ceremony.
Napoli reshuffle again in Coppa Italia
“This is part of the sport, it’s not our fault and not theirs either, so we are not seeking any alibis,” Manna told Sport Mediaset.
“It is a very important competition, we want a prestigious semi-final against Inter. We are accustomed now to playing in difficult circumstances, so we’ll give our best.”
Scott McTominay aggravated an inflammation of the tendon in his thigh and is therefore rested, with David Neres, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Billy Gilmour and Kevin De Bruyne injured.
It means January signing Giovane gets his first start for Napoli, while Alisson Santos is on the bench. Are they the buys Manna wanted in mid-season?
“It was certainly more complicated than we had hoped, we tried to do some other deals, but the parameters weren’t suitable. So we decided to focus on two young players with margin for significant improvement and in my view can be functional for our style of football both today and in future.
“So we are eager to see them in action, but also in no rush.”
Others like Matteo Politano and Romelu Lukaku are only fit for the bench, while Alessandro Buongiorno is left out after his disastrous performance against Genoa.
Goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic returns after several weeks out with a muscular problem, especially as his penalty save allowed Napoli to earn a 0-0 draw here with Como in November.
“I would prefer to have seen how things would’ve gone if we’d had the full squad at our disposal, or at least a normal number of injuries. I’d have loved to be able to see how this team would’ve handled the season in normal circumstances,” noted Manna when asked how the campaign was going.
“Seeing as that was not possible, we have to look forward. We already won the Supercoppa Italiana, we have the chance to progress in the Coppa Italia, it’s true we went out of the Champions League, but in Serie A we are pretty much where we expected to be.
“What happened is not an alibi. We are fortunate enough to have a great squad, a real coach, and a group with guts. That has allowed us to stay pretty much on track, then we’ll see what happens.”