Napoli vs Chelsea

Match Day LIVE

Match Week –  Game Week 8, – Final League Phase match.

Uefa Champions League -2025/2026.

Napoli vs  Chelsea

Venue – Diego  Armando Maradonna , Stadium , Naples , Italy .

Date – January  28th , 2026.

Time-  8.00 pm

Date – January, 28th , 2026 .

Stadio Diego Armando Maradonna  in Naples , Italy is the venue of the final group League  phase match in this year’s champions league,  when Napoli of Italy hosts , Chelsea of England, Wednesday.

Few old friends becomes enemies tonight in far away Naples when the Blues and Napoli faces an acid test in a “Must Win Match”.for both sides on the final match of the league phase of the champions league 2025/2026 season.

The Partenopei side”s  ,Coach , Antonio Conte faces his former club , Chelsea .

Napoli is 25th on the league phase table , need an outright win to avoid early elimination from the prestigious Cup competition, while Chelsea is in the same civc footing with their hosts , to get through to the final coveted top  eight position .

Napoli who have  not been in their best lately after a crushing defeat to Juventus 3-0 at the  Allianz Arena  stadium in Turin , Italy saw them slip nine points behind Serie A league leaders , Inter Milan

The loss in Turin followed a dismal outing against FC Compenhagen of Demark with another stalmate,   0-0 against a 10 man Danish team , the Partenopei could take advantage of a 10 man Danish  hosts  and claim maximum points at least to reduce today’s clash with the Blues to a mere formality match  after the dismissal of Thomas Delaney in the 35th minute , while Mac Tominiy  opened scoring for Napoli before the break while Jardon Larson equalised for Compenhagen  ,to leave the Italian outfit on the 25th position  in the 36th team  league phase.

 Partenopei  sit outside the top 24 teams on goals agregate with five teams  on eight  points ,, a win today will take them to the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions league .

Their mission today is possible if they can keep their acts together and avoid a repeat of the Compenhagen stalemate as they have secured seven points from a possible nine during the league phase group games at home in Naples and coupled with the fact that they have always had an upper hand against English teams in Italy with nine wins out of 11 matches in Europe ,losing only twice in those games .

In one of their eight triumph s against English teams was in 2011/2012 football season wheb they humbled a Blues side in Naples 3-1 in the group stage that year ,only for Chelsea to advance to the next stage with 4-1 victory in the reverse fixture  in London

Chelsea is returning to the Naples after 14 years when Andreas Villa Boas led to an almost outright elimination , but they went ahead to win the trophy that year in 2012 after the Portuguese dismissal and an Italian , Roberto Mateo led them to win the trophy for the blues for rh first time in their football history.

A lot has changed in both clubs after those outings that led Chelsea to win the Cup that year and none of the players now in Chelsea were part of the Squad that won the Cup in 2012 .

We may experience , history repeating itself this year as the blues meets  same Napoli on their way to qualifying to the next stage and probably winning the cup once again .

Time will tell , Time Little Mercies , Time Being a Great Healer of Wounds .

 Not  minding the circumstance, Chelsea are hell bent to secure an outright win tonight in Naples , despite their not too good history with Italian teams  and avoid a dewded play off for the round of 16 qualifications.

The Blues are in the best frame of mind to secure vidory against Napoli with their excellent performance against City rivals over the weekend when they reduced to a mere village team , Crystal Palace  with a comprehensive  1-3  victory at Selhurst Park in London ,in another derby encounter, to extend their unbeaten run to 18 , having drawn the previous three matches before Sunday , the win extended their victory to three matches in all competitions as well as a four match win out of five since the exit of Enzo Maresca , while they look forward to securing four victories back to back since September/October last year ,when champy league win against Ajax and Benfica sandwiched their win in the domestic games against Nothingham Forest and Liverpool.

All the same , Chelsea must over come their poor outing in Europe against Italian opposition which is more or less a plague and that jinx must be broken tonight in Naples , having won just two out of 13 matches and losing eight , with six of their last eight matches in Italy ending in defeat latest being the loss to Atlanta 2-1 in December , just before Christmas

The Blues faces an uphill task at the Diego Maradonna s stadium against Napoli who have not lost a match at home since December , 2024 .

Coupled with the Blues inability to win away from home since 2022 after their victory against RB Salzburg 2-1  with an unwanted sequence of five losses presently with losses to Bayern Munich , Real Madrid , Borrusia  Dortmud  and  Atlanta and managing a draw against Quarabag  FK,  2-2 .

With the present statistics of eight clubs having 13 points , the Blues can still qualify with a good result , Tuesday will still end as high as third position  on the table ,with 15 points same with Real Madrid and could also finish as one of the unseeded teams in the play offs  if they fail to win tonight and results elsewhere are unfavorable.

Both teams are at par with their qualifications as an outright win will see them through heading into Wednesday s significant clash at the Allianz stadium in Naples , Italy .

Predictions.

We expect a match with many goals .

Chelsea’s last 55 games in Europe have not ended in a goalless  draw .and with both teams poised for a good result and with gioss we expect a bland outcome .

And  with  Napoli’s current long and short  form  at Diego  Maradonna stadium as well as Chelsea s past struggles with Italian teams ,

Definitely if the Blues can over come the intimidating atmosphere in Naples , Italy , then batltle the Partenopei lads , hed to head , who have been impressive with their current play maker , the Scottish International  Mac Tomminy ,who have scored four out of their seven goals in this campaign, we do expect a match full of goals as well as the pressure of which team to go through to the round 16 knockout stage

Napli  1-2  Chelsea   Or  2-2

Happy Viewing and Happy Last Group League Phase Matches  of the Uefa Champions league , 2025/2026  season .

Uche Anaba .

Uchefreetips  2026  (C).

Email -ucheanaba@gmail.com

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