Pep Guardiola has sounded a Champions League warning, insisting that Napoli will present his free-flowing Manchester City side with their biggest test of the season.
Premier League leaders City face the Serie A table-toppers home and away in their next two Group F games — and Guardiola has confessed to being a massive fan of the Italian side and their manager, Maurizio Sarri.
Before Tuesday's meeting at the Etihad, he said of the men from Naples: “With the ball, they are fantastic. For me, they are one of the three best teams right now in Europe.”
Guardiola’s former club Barcelona and reigning European kings Real Madrid join Napoli in the triumvirate of teams most pleasing to Pep’s eye right now — though few would argue against adding Manchester City if you wanted to expand that ‘cavaliers’ group into a quartet.
Guardiola’s main brief when he was hired by City was to land Europe’s biggest prize. A perfectionist when it comes to style, he won’t be compromising on his footballing doctrine.
And in 58-year-old Maurizio Sarri, who is attracting interest in some Premier League boardrooms, he sees a soul brother.
“I am a big fan of Sarri. He is one of the best trainers in the world because of how good his teams play,” Guardiola added.
Even when Juventus once again finished on top of Serie A last season it was Napoli’s exciting attacking football under Sarri which earned Guardiola’s praise.
“It’s not always about winning, because Juventus was winning, but few teams in Europe play better than Napoli,” Pep stated.
“I like to watch the teams that want to play. In Italy, where the culture is defensive, Napoli play 40 metres in front of their penalty box – a bit like [legendary Milan and Italy coach] Arrigo Sacchi did.
“Their goalkeeper Pepe Reina is a master of the build-up. They use a lot of players in the middle, with Jorginho, Allan, Jose Callejon, Marek Hamsic, Lorenzo Insigne. And when Dries Mertens comes in there, they have five or six in the middle.
“They have the quality to play the short passes at the right moment. They make a lot of passes of three or four metres, so when they lose the ball they are all together to get it back. I’m a big fan.”
Napoli went into their Saturday game away to Roma on the back of seven straight league wins — with all of them seeing Sarri’s side score at least three times.
Not bad for a coach written off by Napoli great Diego Maradona when Sarri took on the job two years ago, after a career largely spent among the also-rans of Italian football.
Maradona’s initial assessment: “We won’t have a winning Napoli with him. He’s a good person, but he is not worthy of Napoli.”
Double European Cup winning coach Sacchi countered, “Sarri is a genius.”
Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis said: “I would never exchange Sarri, even for Pep Guardiola. Despite his age, Sarri accepts innovation. He studies football and puts into practice what he learns.”
Napoli were surprisingly beaten by Shakhtar Donetsk in their opening group game in Ukraine, before bouncing back with a comfortable defeat of Dutch side Feyenoord.
City took maximum points from their first two games against the same two opponents.
Etihad director of football Txiki Begiristain said: “Napoli play the best football in Europe, Maurizio Sarri is an exceptional coach and he and Pep Guardiola are two football masters.”