Napoli vs. Chelsea: Two reasons why Liam Rosenior's side will fear Champions League failure in Naples

Chelsea head into Wednesday's Champions League against Napoli looking to upset the odds on two fronts.

The Blues will square off against the Italian giants in Naples looking for the win that would could secure their place in the last 16 of the competition.

Despite currently sitting in the final qualifying spot, there are four teams adrift of Chelsea on the same points and with only marginal inferior goal differences.

As such, Liam Rosenior's side must go all out for victory in Italy to avoid having to participate in the playoff round.

However, there are two particular statistics that highlight the size of the task awaiting the world champions.

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Why are Napoli favourites to beat Chelsea?

Napoli head into this encounter on the back of just one win from six games in all competitions and having lost 3-0 at Juventus at the weekend.

Nevertheless, Napoli have incredibly lost just one of their last 20 Champions League fixtures to be played at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

That solitary defeat was by a 3-2 scoreline to Real Madrid in October 2023, and Napoli have only ever lost four of their 33 home games in this competition.

Meanwhile, Chelsea have only prevailed from one of their last nine fixtures in Italy, that being a 2-0 triumph over AC Milan in October 2022.

In this year's tournament, Napoli have collected seven points from games against Sporting Lisbon, Eintracht Frankfurt and Qarabag FK.

As for Chelsea, they have failed to beat any of Bayern Munich, Qarabag and Atalanta BC, collecting only one point.

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The one stat in Chelsea's favour...

Although Chelsea have an inconsistent record in this competition across recent years. they have remarkably scored in 20 matches in succession.

The last time that they failed to net in a Champions League fixture was the first leg of their quarter-final tie with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in April 2023.