Leicester v Napoli predictions: Serie A visitors value for road victory

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Leicester City v Napoli in the Europa League on Thursday.

Where to watch

BT Sport 2, 8pm Thursday

Best bet

Napoli
1pt 21-10 bet365

Team news

Leicester
Jonny Evans returned from injury as a substitute against Manchester City and could make a return to the starting line up.

Napoli
Lorenzo Insigne and Marco Rui are doubts after suffering injuries at the weekend and Diego Demme, Stanislav Lobotka, Alex Meret, Dries Mertens and Faouzi Ghoulam are sidelined.

Match preview

Leicester have lost early ground in the Premier League with defeats away to West Ham and at home to Manchester City and they could be second-best to Napoli on Europa League matchday one.

European nights are big occasions for Foxes fans and Leicester's clash with Napoli is undoubtedly the pick of three home assignments in Group C.

However, Brendan Rodgers will be mindful of his team's choppy start to the Premier League and may have to take Sunday's trip to Brighton into account when selecting his team.

Wholesale changes are unlikely but Rodgers could be in the mood to tinker and that could boost the visiting team's chances.

Napoli maintained their 100 per cent start to the Serie A season by coming from behind to win 2-1 at home to Juventus on Sunday.

Defeating Juve came at a slight cost with striker Lorenzo Insigne and left-back Mario Rui picking up niggles and failing to finish the game. But Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti has good options and could consider recalls for Polish attacking midfielder Piotr Zielinski or Mexican attacker Hirving Lozano, who were among the weekend substitutes.

Napoli finished just outside the top four last season despite collecting 77 points and scoring 86 goals, and they seem determined to keep striving for improvement.

Champions League qualification will be their top priority but they have a deep enough squad to compete effectively on separate fronts and can kick off their Europa League challenge with a victory.

Key stat

Napoli have won seven of their last eight away fixtures.

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