Napoli v Club Brugge background

Maurizio Sarri will take charge of SSC Napoli for the first time in European competition as his side take on Club Brugge KV in UEFA Europa League Group D.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.

• Napoli are unbeaten in their two home games against Belgian sides (W1 D1) but lost both of their previous matches in Belgium.

• Club Brugge's record in Italy is W2 D2 L4, with the scorelines close in all of those fixtures; they have never lost or won by a margin of more than one goal in Italy.

Form guide
• Both sides were eliminated by losing finalists FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in last season's UEFA Europa League; Club Brugge in the quarter-finals, Napoli in the semi-finals.

• Napoli are unbeaten in 13 European home games (W9 D4) since a shock 3-0 loss to FC Viktoria Plzeň in the 2012/13 UEFA Europa League round of 32.

• Club Brugge are on a three-game losing streak on the road in UEFA competition.

• Napoli made it through to the knockout stage in all three of their previous UEFA Europa League group stage campaigns; Club Brugge have featured at this stage of the UEFA Cup and UEFA Europa League eight times, qualifying three times and missing out five times.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Naples to Bruges is just over 1400km.

• Napoli boast Belgian talent in the form of winger Dries Mertens.

• Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina has made 142 UEFA club competition appearances – more than any other player in this season's competition. One more appearance will see him join Edwin van der Sar and Andriy Shevchenko in tenth place on the all time club appearances leaderboard.

• Club Brugge's Timmy Simons has made more outfield appearances than any other player in this season's group stage: 118.

The coaches
• Naples-born Maurizio Sarri came in to replace Rafael Benítez when he left Napoli for Real Madrid CF at the end of last season. Having spent much of his career in the lower leagues, he led Empoli FC up to Serie A in 2013/14, and surprisingly kept them up comfortably last season.

• A great goalkeeper in his time, Club Brugge coach Michel Preud'homme has carved out a fine career as a coach, winning titles in Belgium (with R. Standard de Liège) and Saudi Arabia (Al-Shabab). Club Brugge coach since 2013, he led them to Belgian Cup success last season.