NAPOLI manager Luciano Spalletti has not ruled out Victor Osimhen from the side’s UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie against AC Milan.
The Serie A leaders are away to Milan on Wednesday night in the first leg of their European tie, just 10 days after they were thrashed 4-0 at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium by the same team in a league fixture.
Nigeria international Osimhen, Napoli’s leading scorer with 21 league goals, missed the Serie A clash due to injury but Spalletti is hopeful his first-choice striker will be available next week.
Osimhen has however been ruled out of tonight’s Serie A visit to Lecce.
“Against Lecce there is no chance, we go to the following week with the work schedule,” Spalletti said about Osimhen’s availability.
“For the following matches there are many possibilities from a programming point of view, but you have to wait for the practical development of the work.”
Napoli are 16 points clear of second-placed Lazio at the top of the Serie A standings and on course for their first Scudetto in 33 years, but the Italian coach has warned against complacency.
“The team knows well the difficulties, Lecce are very well trained, they are very good on the pitch, they have suffered defeats in a row but because of moments, they were not deserved defeats and they won against great teams in which we saw their idea of total football, pressing, immediately turning the action around, immediately going back behind the line of the ball,” Spalletti said during his pre-match press conference yesterday.
“The environment is in love with football, there is infinite passion, then if they have a different position in the table from ours it’s because there are values and if you are good at showing them on the pitch it’s probably a possible match.
“If instead you are convinced that it’s a filler match towards other more important ones you do like the other night with opponents who pass in our area without aggression.”
Spalletti was then asked about the racist abuse suffered by Romelu Lukaku during the recent Derby d’Italia against Juventus.
“It’s a matter to be investigated well, we have to be convinced of the solution, all I’m saying is that it’s a pity to see these things in our stadiums and that if we want to be up to European football, we have to change something,” he noted.
“Even in celebrating when you win, in the headlines it depends on what you did, there is also a bit of provocation, we should all be a bit more careful with our behaviour and then put some rules in place and make people pay for the consequences, it goes from there.”
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