The Yellow submarine. The title of a Beatles song that made music history. The same yellow submarine, this time however to be sunk, can write a page in the history of football tonight. To be precise in the history of Naples, the glorious club that has gone from Maradona's championships to the shame of Serie C in 20 years.
But that C is now the initial of the Champions League, Europe that matters, e tonight in Spain, Napoli will face Villarreal (whose symbol is, in fact, a yellow submarine) to compete for a historic qualification for the round of XNUMX of the most prestigious competition for a European team.
Mazzarri's men occupy second place in the group, behind already qualified Bayern Munich and Mancini's menacing Manchester City. The submarine would appear to have already sunk: it is last and has scored 0 points. He always lost. But there is also pride in football, and UEFA prizes provide money for even a single point scored. Two birds with one stone: saving honor in front of the home crowd and taking home some money that never hurts.
But the fact remains that Villarreal is out of contention, and Napoli have everything to lose, but also the obligation to win so as not to depend on the result of the other game. It's never easy, when you have only one result available and you're playing away from home, hitting it, especially if it's a goal that makes Cavani and his teammates shake their legs.
In fact, Napoli did not get that far in what was then the European Cup not even with Maradona: in two participations, one elimination in the first round (by Real Madrid), and one in the second (by the Russians of Spartak Moscow), and only two games won in all, both against modest Hungarians Ujpest in the first round 90-91. In this group, which at the time of the draw was considered the most difficult and almost inaccessible for the Azzurri, De Laurentiis' club has already done better in comparison: already 2 games won against top opponents and Cavani best European scorer in Neapolitan history. In just two seasons he has already scored 11 goals, better than Careca.
In short, a good piece of history has already been written. All that remains is for the more than 5 Neapolitans who have arrived in Spain by all means (plane, car, ship) to push their 11 heroes and this submarine, with all due respect to the Beatles, is painted in blue.
