Napoli crash out of Europa League as RB Leipzig win on away goals

Napoli have crashed out of the Europa League at the hands of RB Leipzig despite a 2-0 win in their last-32 second leg at the Red Bull Arena.

A weakened Partenopei side lost 3-1 in the first leg at Stadio San Paolo last week as Maurizio Sarri saved his key players for the club's Serie A championship tilt.

Even though Piotr Zielinski and Lorenzo Insigne levelled the scoreline at 3-3 in Germany, Leipzig held on to go through on away goals.

The visitors began brightly, Marek Hamsik mustering a half-chance against Peter Gulacsi early on.

At the other end, Marcel Sabitzer's volley from the edge of the box came off Lorenzo Tonelli and hit the crossbar on 14 minutes.

Insigne had Napoli's first concrete chance of the match just before the half-hour mark, but his effort cannoned off the post as the passage of play was cut down for offside.

The Italians were very much on the ascendency when they opened the scoring on 32 minutes, Zielinski pouncing on the rebound from an Insigne shot to fire into the net for the breakthrough.

With five minutes to go in the match, Napoli drew level on aggregate as Jose Callejon's cross was volleyed home by Insigne to set up a nervy finish for Leipzig.

Callejon then had the chance to win it in injury time, but his effort sailed over the bar as the hosts saw the final few minutes out and progressed to the last 16 of the competition.

RB LEIPZIG (4-4-2): Gulacsi; Laimer, Konate, Upamecano, Bernardo; Sabitzer, Kampl, Demme, Bruma (Forsberg 73'); Poulsen, Werner (Augustin 85')

NAPOLI (4-3-3): Reina; Maggio, Tonelli, Albiol, Rui; Allan, Diawara (Jorginho 82'), Hamsik (Callejon 66'); Zielinski, Mertens, Insigne