Ancelotti: My experience can help Napoli topple Juve

Napoli has been Juventus' closest rival in Serie A in recent seasons and Carlo Ancelotti is confident he can help it win the title.

Published : Aug 24, 2018 09:05 IST

Carlo Ancelotti hopes his glittering array of titles across Europe can help Napoli take the next step and end its 28-year Scudetto drought.

Napoli has finished in the top five in Serie A for the past eight seasons and has been Juventus' main challenger in the previous three.

For large parts of the 2017-18 season the Partenopei was title favourite in Italy, but Juve was once again too strong and battled back to lift a seventh successive Scudetto.

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Napoli only finished four points adrift of the champion, though, and Ancelotti – who replaced Maurizio Sarri in May - hopes his previous successes can help close to gap to Juve even further.

"I hope to take Napoli on to the top of the Serie A podium," Ancelotti – who has won titles in Italy, Germany, France and England - told DAZN .

"This squad has a lot of quality and haven't reached the top of the podium yet, but are very close. I hope with my experience and help to take them on that final step."

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Napoli opened the 2018-19 campaign with a 2-1 victory over Lazio last weekend, and faces AC Milan in its first home match of the season.

That will see Ancelotti come up against Gennaro Gattuso, the latter having played under the 59-year-old during his time in charge of the Rossoneri.

"Rino [Gattuso] is still the same in terms of character. You can tell from the way his team plays: focused, well-organised, solid, aggressive. Just like Gattuso as a player," he added.

"In some ways I did expect him to become a coach, in others I really didn't. The key uniting all those who go into this line of work is passion and Gattuso formed his whole wonderful career on passion."

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