Still seeking their first win of this season’s league phase, PSV Eindhoven will host Napoli on Tuesday evening, as the Dutch and Italian title-holders lock horns in the Champions League.
PSV have only picked up one point so far, while their visitors bounced back from an opening-day defeat to beat Sporting Lisbon last time out.
After losing 3-1 at home to Belgian champions Union SG on matchday one, PSV were already facing an uphill task to make it through from the league phase and into the knockout rounds.
Defensive discipline has often proved their downfall: the Eindhoven club have only kept one clean sheet in their last 18 Champions League matches, while conceding goals at a rate of more than two per game across the last 10.
Yet, very capable of finding the net themselves, PSV have lost just three of their last 15 group or league-phase fixtures at the very top level.
Napoli’s only previous meetings with PSV came in the 2012-13 Europa League group stage, when the Dutch club won both home and away by an aggregate scoreline of 6-1.
Of course, the Serie A side will expect to fare better on Tuesday, as they continue a quest to break new grounds.
Napoli’s attack is already missing Romelu Lukaku and new striker Hojlund suffered a thigh strain in training and was withdrawn from the squad to face Torino.
As Napoli are amid an injury crisis and have just suffered three straight away losses for the first time in two years, they may just be able to escape with a point.
Credit: sportsmole.co.uk
