Conte: ‘Napoli have great respect for Qarabag’ and deal with new injury

Antonio Conte insists Napoli have ‘great respect’ for Qarabag after their Champions League upsets, but is forced to deal with yet another new injury problem.

It kicks off at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona at 20.00 GMT.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Bodo/Glimt-Juventus on the Liveblog.

The Partenopei got back on track in Serie A at the weekend with a 3-1 victory over Atalanta, which saw a change of tactics to the 3-4-2-1 formation.

Now they want to boost their Champions League position too after a pair of defeats, one victory over Sporting CP, and a 0-0 home draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.

However, Qarabag are not to be taken for granted, as they beat Benfica and FC Copenhagen, drawing 2-2 with Chelsea.

“Every game is important, it’s inevitable that tonight’s match has three big points at stake. We are up against a team which has the same ideas, we have great respect for them, they achieved some excellent results against top teams, picking up seven points, but we want to win this game,” Conte told Sky Sport Italia.

Following their goals in the 3-1 win over Atalanta, Conte has maintained David Neres and Noa Lang in the front three with Rasmus Hojlund.

“We need to balance out the energy levels. Lang and Neres certainly had a good game, they scored goals, so it was only right to keep the faith with them and try to ride the positive emotional wave from that performance.”

The only change from the side that won at the weekend is Miguel Gutierrez, who suffered a sprain in training, making way for Matias Olivera on the left.

“I have always said there are things unfortunately I cannot control. It was a sprain, we hadn’t had one of those. We can talk about many things, but at the end of the day, whether you have players available or not is of fundamental importance,” concluded Conte.

This is also a special night in Naples, as it is five years since the death of Diego Armando Maradona, the club legend who the stadium was named after.

There will be several tributes, including flowers laid at the feet of his statue, and the fans lifting up their flags at the 10th minute to herald the ultimate 10.