Napoli aim to bounce back

Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri hopes his side can bounce back from their surprise 2-0 defeat to Chievo Verona when they host Cesena on Sunday.

Mazzarri’s side have surprised many this season after finishing sixth place in the Serie A last year, sitting in second spot on the table with 15 games remaining – just five points behind league leaders AC Milan.

But despite having the chance to close the gap between themselves and Milan to just two points on Wednesday, Mazzarri’s men were outplayed and eventually beaten in Chievo to break a four-match unbeaten run.

The coach insists the Chievo game is a performance his side is desperate to atone for against Cesena.

“The display against Chievo was a bad performance, this is what I’ve tried to make my players understand,” the 49-year-old said.

“We have gone over the game and when we play it in the right way we always create difficulties to all our opposition.”

Mazzarri said being able to eke out good results when not playing well was the hallmark of a championship side.

“AC Milan, Inter Milan or Roma are able to do this, they can find ways of achieving good results even if they’re not playing at their best,” he said.

“We’re not able to do this, we can only play our best and give a performance. If we want to compete against teams which are superior than us, we should be humble and try and find something that maybe they don’t have.”

“Maybe I should have made some more substitutions against Chievo as well. There will certainly be more substitutions next time.”