Walter Mazzarri To Miss Both Chelsea-Napoli Matches

Napoli are already faced with a tough ask in having to deal with Chelsea FC in the Champions League Round of 16, but now they'll be faced with a key absentee - manager Walter Mazzarri, who's widely credited with turning the club into the counterattacking powerhouse we all know and love. UEFA have banned the eccentric manager for two matches, which rules him out of both matches against the Blues.

Why the suspension? It turns out that shoving an opposition player off the ball, as Mazzarri did to Nilmar with Napoli drawing 0-0 against Villarreal in Napoli's final group stage match, is frowned upon. The 50-year-old later admitted that he had deliberately gotten himself sent off to fire up his team, and it worked, with the Partenopei eventually winning 2-0 to advance to the knockout stages, but UEFA didn't look too kindly on it.

Napoli are going to appeal, but one suspects that it's not going to work, so yeah, they won't have a manager for their games against us. I don't think anyone really knows how much having a manager on the touchline actually matters - it's not as though the team's suddenly going to forget how to play a 3-4-2-1 with Mazzarri absent - but hey, this can't hurt Chelsea's bid to get to the quarterfinals.