Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk vs Napoli

Napoli travel to Ukraine to take on Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the second leg semi-final of the Europa League at the Dnipro-Arena on Thursday.

The Italian side were the favourites against Dnipro in the first leg at the Stadio San Paolo, but contrary to everyone's expectations, the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Napoli dominated almost the whole match in the first leg, but their finishing was not up to the mark as they were only able to score one goal through David Lopez, despite creating 20 chances during the game.

The goal eventually did not prove to be enough; Yevhen Seleznyov snatched a late equaliser to put Dnipro in the driving seat ahead of the second leg.

Although Napoli boss Rafa Benitez admits that his side have a lot of "respect" for Dnipro, he insists that his side are not "nervous", ahead of this fixture, especially following their dominating performance in the first leg.

"We have lots of respect for Dnipro as we've seen what they are capable of. We saw their strength; these are tough and tenacious opponents," the former Liverpool boss told UEFA's official website.

"However, I don't see many reasons to be overly nervous about this game. In our last [league] match, we had more than 20 shots. If we can repeat that we'll definitely score a couple of goals. That will be enough for us, I guess."

The Spaniard insists that his side is completely "focused on getting a positive result" on Thursday so that they the reach the final of the Europa League.

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"We have a very important match and we are focused on getting a positive result here. We have to show all we can on the football pitch," he said. 

"We work hard to avoid mistakes we've committed in past, and I hope this will be the case here. We are totally focused on this very important game and we want to reach the Europa League final."

Meanwhile, Dnipro also be fancying their chances of reaching the finals of the Europa League, especially considering the fact that a goal-less draw on Saturday will be enough to see them through.

However, the task will not be very easy as they struggled against the Serie A side in the first leg and were lucky to grab the late equaliser through Seleznyov.

Still DniproMyron Markevych, despite admitting that Napoli were "really great" in the first leg, is hopeful that his side will be able to do better in the second leg in front of their own fans.

"We weren't ourselves in Italy. Napoli's performance in the first leg was really great, I know this because I have watched lots of their games. They made us run without ball for the whole match," Markevych told UEFA's official website.

"But I hope here it will be different because I know we can play a different kind of football than we saw in Naples. We'll try to counterattack with more quality this time.

"We are in good spirits. We'll play at home and I know there'll be a lot of people at the stadium in Kyiv. I know my team's strengths and I hope my players will show their best. Nobody knows what result we'll get as we're up against a really strong opponent. Anyway, after the first leg, the chances are a bit more even," he said.

 Expected lineups

Dnipro: Boyko; Fedetskiy, Douglas, Cheberyachko, Léo Matos; Kankava, Rotan, Fedorchuk, Matheus, Konoplyanka; Kalinić.
Napoli: Andújar; Maggio, Albiol, Britos, Ghoulam; Inler, López; Insigne/Mertens, Callejón, Hamšík; Higuaín.

Where to Watch Live

The game is scheduled for a 9:05pm local time (12:35am IST, 8:05pm BST, 3:05pm ET) start, with live coverage on Ten Sports in India. The match can also be watched via live streaming online on Ten Sports Live.

Viewers in the UK can catch the match live on ITV 1 and ITV 4, with a option to live stream on ITV Player. US audience can watch the game live on ESPN 3 or online on Fox Soccer 2Go and Watch ESPN. Viewers in Canada can watch via live stream on Sportsnet World.

Viewers in Spain can watch the match live on Gol Stadium, and Movistar TV Fútbol, while Italian audience can do the same on Rete 4 and Premium Calcio HD.