Udinese vs Napoli preview - Inler urges Napoli to look ahead

Posted Monday, February 25, 2013 by PA

Napoli midfielder Gokhan Inler wants his team-mates to put an embarrassing week behind them and build for the future with a positive result at Udinese on Monday night.

The Serie A title hopefuls made an early exit from the Europa League after suffering a 5-0 aggregate defeat to Czech outfit Viktoria Plzen, a result that did little to inspire confidence ahead of next week's crucial meeting with Juventus at the San Paolo.

But Inler feels victory in Udine, where the Swiss spent four years before moving south, will inspire the Azzurri to greater things in the Scudetto run-in.

He told sscnapoli.it: "We have to move on. We are going to do our best in the championship.

"We tried to put things right in Plzen and we really wanted to do well, but we came up against a very strong and determined opponent.

"Now we have to get up again. We have collected eight good results in a row in Serie A and we intend to continue like this."

The Stadio Friuli holds special memories for Inler, who made nearly 150 appearances in black and white after leaving FC Zurich.

"Udine was my home for many years but now my home is Napoli and I want to give all I can for this team," he added.

"I know the club and I know it will be a difficult game for us. It will be tough and we have to be ready. We have to forget about the European experience in order to focus on the championship.

"We are second in the table and competing to qualify for the Champions League and we know perfectly well that we can achieve something important.

"We don't look at our rivals, but only at ourselves. We still have 13 matches to play and anything can happen."

Udinese defender Mehdi Benatia, meanwhile, is still angry after missing a gilt-edged chance to earn his side a point against Genoa last time out.

The Bianconeri missed Benatia while he was at the African Nations Cup with Morocco but they might have wished he had stayed away when he failed to notch from an easy one-on-one with Sebastien Frey.

Udinese have won four consecutive league games at home, though, and Benatia is urging a fifth against Napoli this weekend.

He said: "We started well against Genoa, in my opinion, and were a bit unlucky on their goal.

"We played well after the break and I think we deserved to win. I'm still really annoyed with the chance I wasted to score.

"Napoli are a great side even if they're not playing their best stuff, but we want to react as soon as possible and we must definitely get a positive result at home."

Goalkeeper Zeljko Brkic remains injured, with Daniele Padelli likely to continue in his place, while defender Gabriele Angella serves a one-match suspension. Suspended goalkeeper Roberto Colombo is Napoli's only absentee.