Napoli are Europa League favourites: Koulibaly, Latest Football News - The New Paper
Football

Napoli are Europa League favourites: Koulibaly

Fresh from exiting the Champions League at the group stage yesterday morning (Singapore time), Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly said his side should now be considered favourites to win the Europa League.

The Serie A side dropped to Europe's second-tier competition after a 1-0 defeat by Liverpool at Anfield saw the Reds and Paris Saint-Germain advance to the Champions League knockout stages from Group C.

Said Senegal defender Koulibaly: "We will have to give everything in the Europa League to go as far as possible, and even try to win it.

"We know it won't be easy because now we are the favourites for it.

"It will be a difficult competition because there are good teams in the Europa League.

"But we have time to think about it, now we must think about tonight.

"We will try and win it."

His coach Carlo Ancelotti, meanwhile, said he had no regrets despite his side going from top of the group to third place yesterday.

He said: "We have no regrets.

"Overall, the group of players have done extremely well, we took it down to the wire.

"You can't expect to come to Liverpool and create 10 really good chances, we had one or two and didn't have the luck to take one of them."

However, PSG's Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon admitted he was sorry to see Napoli crash out.

He told Sky Sport Italia: "I'm sorry because Napoli were on a beautiful run and the leading light in our group."

Football