Mazzarri braced for City test

Walter Mazzarri has called on his Napoli team to rise to the challenge of facing Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Napoli played out a hard-fought 0-0 draw with Serie A high-flyers Lazio on Saturday.

Their attention now shifts to the visit of City to the Stadio San Paolo.

Napoli, third in Group A, trail second-placed City by two points, with two matches remaining.

And Mazzarri knows his players must be at their best if they are to record a positive result against the English Premier League leaders.

“We’ll face this match aware we’ve just played a great match against Lazio, the second half in particular,” Mazzarri said.

“And we know we need to play even better tomorrow because our opponents are a team with technical qualities at the highest level of world football.”

“If we manage to do everything well and play with great attention both in defence and in attack, I think we have a chance to create difficulties for such strong opponents such as Manchester City, we aren’t interested in anything else.”

“We have some strategies to look at on the pitch and we’ll always try to be offensive when we get the ball as we’ll always try to get the ball back as soon as possible when the opponents have it.”

While Napoli are largely dependent on star forwards Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi to provide a goal threat, City have an embarrassment of riches to choose from up front.

Carlos Tevez appeared in the first meeting between the teams at Etihad Stadium in September.

The Argentine has since fallen out of favour with Roberto Mancini due to disciplinary reasons.

But the likes of Mario Balotelli, Eden Dzeko and Sergio Aguero are more than capable of filling the void.

“Balotelli didn’t play in the first leg, but Tevez played that match, now they’ll have Balotelli instead of Tevez, that’s how strong Manchester City are,” Mazzarri said.

“If you look at the transfer market and at their squad you see they are at the level of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea, but then of course what will happen on the pitch is another thing.”