Europa League: Swansea City v Napoli match preview

A look ahead to this week’s Europa League fixture at the Liberty Stadium

Rafael Benitez's Napoli travel to Swansea (GETTY IMAGES)

Napoli manager, Rafael Benitez will return to the UK this week when his side take on Swansea in the Europa League Round of 32. Benitez, who won the competition with Chelsea last year, failed to secure his sides place in the Champions League knockout stages after finishing third in a group with both Bayern Munich and Arsenal.

Having now dropped down into the Europa League, Napoli have become strong favourites to win the competition following a valiant effort in the top tier of European football. Swansea City, led by caretaker manager Garry Monk, were fortunate to make the knockout stages of the competition as they qualified with the second least amount of points to progress (8). Following the controversial sacking of Michael Laudrup earlier this month, Thursday’s fixture against the Italian side will be Gary Monk’s first European game in charge of Swansea and he will be hoping to make an impact following mixed domestic form. Napoli have lost only one of their last eleven Serie A matches, so the Swans will have their work cut out for them if they are to deny Benitez the opportunity for a third European cup.

KICK-OFF: Thursday, 8.05pm

STATS…

This will be the first time Swansea City have played an Italian team in European competition (excl. qualifiers).

Napoli have won just one of their last 11 away games in the Europa League (D3 L7).

Of the sides who qualified to the Last 32, only Real Betis (1) scored fewer home goals than Swansea in the group stage (2).

Napoli's last two eliminations in this competition have come at the Last 32 stage; to Villarreal in 2011 and Viktoria Plzen in 2013.

ODDS…

Swansea to win: 2.9

Dnipro to win: 2.37

Draw: 3.3

TV: Live on ITV 1 at 8.05pm