Man City v Napoli: last Napoli win in 2011, Cavani the hero | OneFootball

This evening, Antonio Conte's Napoli will be guests at Manchester's Etihad Stadium to face Guardiola's City in the first match of the Champions League group stage. This is not the first clash between the two teams, the last being in the 2017/2018 season, with Sarri on the bench. But to find the last victory of the Neapolitans against the Citizens, we have to go back to November 2011.

November 22, 2011: When Hamsik-Cavani-Lavezzi Defeated City

It's a challenging debut for Antonio Conte's boys, who will face Guardiola's City this evening in a match that has always provided plenty of entertainment in the past. In recent history, the Azzurri have faced the Citizens on four occasions in the group stages of the tournament. The format is now different, with a single group where each team faces 8 teams based on their seeding.

To recount Napoli's last victory over Manchester City, we must go back to November 22, 2011, when the Azzurri returned to the Champions League for the first time since their 2004 bankruptcy. It ended 2-1 for Walter Mazzarri's boys, led by the 'Matador' Cavani, who scored a brace, with the help of Marek Hamsik and Ezequiel Lavezzi, probably the most beloved trio by Napoli fans, and perhaps one of the strongest.

This was the lineup that took the field that November evening in Napoli-Manchester City 2-1:

NAPOLI (3-4-2-1): De Sanctis; Cannavaro, Aronica, Campagnaro; Maggio, Inler, Gargano, Dossena; Hamsik, Lavezzi; Cavani

Six years after that time, the Neapolitans meet City again; a certainly stellar and formidable team compared to that of 2011, against which Sarri's Napoli could do nothing in both matches: the first leg in Manchester ended 2-1 in favor of the Citizens, the return at Maradona (then San Paolo), ended with a 2-4 in favor of the English.

Francesco Landi

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.