Chelsea's poor run gives Napoli reason to believe

Chelsea FC have a poor recent record at home in the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds and have to reverse that trend when they face SSC Napoli in the return leg of their last-16 encounter.

• The London club went down 3-1 in Naples on 21 February despite taking the lead through Juan Mata's 27th-minute strike before goals from Ezequiel Lavezzi (39, 65) and Edinson Cavani (45+2) gave Napoli a cushion to take to London.

• Since the first leg Chelsea have dispensed with the services of manager André Villas-Boas, his assistant Roberto Di Matteo taking charge until the end of the season.

Match background
• The sides had not met in a competitive fixture prior to the first leg.

• Chelsea, who are in the last 16 for the ninth season in succession, have not won any of their last five UEFA Champions League knockout home matches. Starting from the 2008/09 quarter-final their results have been: 4-4 v Liverpool FC, 1-1 v Barcelona (2008/09 semi-final), 0-1 v FC Internazionale Milano (2009/10 round of 16), 0-0 with FC København (2010/11 round of 16) and 0-1 v Manchester United FC (2010/11 quarter-final).

• That Inter defeat was Chelsea's second home reverse at the hands of Italian foes; they also went down to S.S. Lazio in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League second group stage. Of the other five such contests, four have been won with the other drawn.

• In knockout contests against Serie A sides Chelsea have two triumphs from three attempts, knocking out Juventus at this stage in the 2008/09 campaign and Vicenza Calcio in the 1997/98 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals en route to lifting that trophy for the second time.

• Chelsea have won six of the 10 UEFA competition ties in which they have had a first-leg deficit to retrieve at Stamford Bridge; the most recent defeat came in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League round of 16 against  Inter (1-2 away, 0-1 home). They have failed in three attempts to overhaul a first-leg away defeat by a two-goal margin or more and, on the sole occasion they lost 3-1 away from home, AS Monaco FC earned a 2-2 draw in London in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League semi-finals.

• This is only Napoli's third away game against English opponents, all in the space of 17 months. They lost 3-1 at Liverpool FC in the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League group stage.

• The meeting at Manchester City FC on 14 September ended 1-1 and was key to Walter Mazzarri's team retaining supremacy over the English side in the section. Edinson Cavani shot them ahead and also scored twice as the Partenopei earned a 2-1 victory in the return.

• In their other Group A away games Napoli won 2-0 at Villarreal CF to clinch second spot behind FC Bayern München after losing 3-2 in Munich.

• Chelsea won their group for the fifth time in six seasons, winning all three home games and scoring ten goals without conceding.

• While Napoli have lost four of the 13 UEFA competition ties in which they were victorious in the first leg at home, they triumphed in all four in which they won by two goals in the first match – all by a 2-0 scoreline – most recently against Skonto FC in the 1994/95 UEFA Cup first round (2-0 home, 1-0 away).

Team ties
• Di Matteo scored the only goal in Lazio's Serie A win against Napoli in May 1996.

• Andrea Dossena and Fernando Torres were team-mates at Liverpool between 2008 and 2010.

• Salomon Kalou scored Chelsea's goal in a 2-1 defeat at Goran Pandev's Inter in the first leg of the 2009/10 round of 16. The Nerazzurri went through with a 3-1 aggregate success.

• Frank Lampard scored from the penalty spot at Wembley as England drew 2-2 against a Switzerland side which included Gökhan Inler and Blerim Dzemaili in UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying on 4 June 2011. John Terry and Ashley Cole also appeared for the home side.

• Marek Hamšík scored a 73rd-minute penalty past Petr Čech as Slovakia earned a 2-2 home draw against the Czech Republic in a FIFA World Cup qualifier in September 2009.

• Inler captained the Swiss side who beat Spain 1-0 in their opening 2010 World Cup fixture in Durban. Torres appeared as a second-half substitute while Mata remained on the bench.