Napoli focused on Serie A after Europa exit
Napoli head coach Walter Mazzarri claims his side will be going all out to win the Serie A title after being knocked out of the Europa League by Viktoria Plzen.
By FOX SPORTS Staff
The Partenopei's Europa League adventure was ended after unfancied Plzen followed up their shock 3-0 win over Mazzarri's men in the first leg of the last-32 tie with a hard fought 2-0 win in the second leg on Thursday.
Napoli, with the likes of highly-rated striker Edinson Cavani within their ranks, were one of the frontrunners to win the competition, and their exit will undoubtedly prove to be a sore point with fans of the club.
However, Mazzarri chose to look on the bright side of being knocked out of the competition and claimed that his side could now channel all their energy into winning the Serie A title this season.
"In my opinion after a difficult moment this team has always found its humbleness and its' power back," Mazzarri was quoted as saying by the official Napoli website.
"We are going to do it also this time, until the end of the season.
"Now we must focus on the Serie A championship.
"It is never nice to be knocked out of Europe, but of course it is not a disadvantage if we think of the Serie A.
"We can work better during the week to gather all our physical and mental resources.
"Now we are about to live an important week and we will try to recover all our energy to do our best."
Mazzarri made the startling choice to rest Cavani for the second leg of their clash with Plzen, but the 51-year-old justified his decision by declaring that his side had no chance of overturning the three goal advantage the Czech Republic outfit had gained from the first leg.
"Our qualification was jeopardised in the first game," Mazzarri admitted.
"Honestly, we could have done more, but our opponents were energetic and aggressive, also thanks to the strength due to the first leg result at San Paolo stadium.
"That match marked the qualification; tonight [Thursday] we had to score to be able to hope. I tried to line up all my strikers, but they [Plzen] will be a tough rival for everybody."
Napoli will take on Udinese in their next Serie A fixture.