Napoli vs Arsenal: Kalidou Koulibaly claims ‘angry’ Italians are fired up to stun Gunners

The Senegalese defender admits the Azzurri are disappointed by their performance at the Emirates but still believes they can reverse the score on aggregate

Kalidou Koulibaly claims Napoli are “angry” with the way they lost to Arsenal last week but maintains they can still progress from their Europa League quarter-final.

The Gunners hold a 2-0 lead from the first leg at the Emirates Stadium a week ago, with goals from Aaron Ramsey and a Koulibaly own-goal.

Unai Emery’s side have lost both of their away knockout games in this season’s Europa League, slipping to defeat at BATE Borisov and Rennes before reversing both ties around at home.

And Koulibaly, who was the subject of racial abuse on a Snapchat video shot during the game in north London, maintains Napoli can flip the tie to advance to the semi-finals, where they would play against Valencia or Villarreal.

“We’re angry about the performance in London,” he told Napoli’s official website.

“We know we messed up and we’re aware we didn’t show our true quality. We want to do so in the return leg.

“There’s still a chance we’ll go through if we play as we can do, at the height of our ability. It’s still open. We need to be aggressive and put pressure on Arsenal. We’ll be ready on Thursday.”

Midfielder Jose Callejon revealed the Napoli players held a meeting after the first leg and, like Koulibaly, still feels the club can make it to the last four.

“We will give everything we have inside us to get through,” he said.

“After the first leg we got together and spoke between ourselves. We spoke openly about everything. We’ve got a solid and united dressing room, which is something we’ve shown over the years.

Kalidou Koulibaly claims Napoli are angry (EPA)

“We’ve very optimistic. We got our approach wrong in the first leg. There was a feeling of disappointment after the game in London.

“But now we’ve got a chance to turn it around and put in a great performance to get to the semi-final.”

PA Sport contributed to this report