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Osimhen’s Napoli brace up for 20,000 Frankfurt ‘invaders’ to Naples in Champions League duel

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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE NAPOLI OSIMHEN FRANKFURT

Following the knockout stage fixtures of the UEFA Champions League draw  in which in-form Napoli FC will stage the reverse fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt from German Bundesliga next February, the current Serie A leaders been alerted of possible invasion of over 20,000 ticket holding away team fans in the return leg.

According to Italian football blog, Tuttonapoli.net, it claimed the German club supporters have begun plans to invade the Diego Maradona stadium the same way over 35,000 ticket holding fans stormed Barcelona’s Camp Nou last season in the quarter final match of Europa League match which the German side won 4-3 on aggregate after 1-1 score line in the first leg.

“Eintracht Frankfurt is probably the team that moves the most fans in Europe, or almost. Do you remember when last year, in the Europa League, 35,000 Rossoneri Barcelona fans? Here, perhaps the same will happen with the trip to Naples. 

“Tomorrow on the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung an entire page will be dedicated to advertisements with travel offers for the Neapolitan city, a way to bring as many people as possible to Italy.

Although UEFA rule give away fans allocation of 5 % of the spectators stand meaning the number of fans for a match largely depends on the capacity of the stadium and at Camp Nou last season, the traveling German fans overflowed from the allocated area as their fans purchased tickets from black market from home fans’ ticket holders and thus gave the Frankfurt side a bragging right within the iconic stadium.

In a related development, Napoli FC coach, Luciano Spalletti while reacting to the draw said “at these levels they are all tough, difficult matches, even though we might like to avoid PSG. However, Eintracht in Frankfurt is the holder of the Europa League, the second continental trophy, and it’s a fast-growing team. It won’t be easy,” he remarked.

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The German team, winner of the last Europa League, currently fifth in the Bundesliga with 23 points and -5 behind Bayern first, finished second in Group D behind Tottenham.

 

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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