Man City, Napoli set for crucial showdown

Back in August, when Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Napoli were drawn into the same Champions League group, a chorus of gasps went up inside the auditorium in Monaco.

Three months later, Bayern is nearly sure of advancing, Villarreal has been eliminated and Tuesday’s match between City and Napoli will likely determine the second squad that goes through to the next round.

Bayern leads Group A with 10 points, followed by City with seven and Napoli with five.

City can advance with a win, while Napoli needs to beat the Premier League leaders to revive its chances.

After beating Newcastle 3-1 Saturday to maintain its five-point lead over Manchester United in England, City comes to Naples with a nine-match winning streak in all competitions — with a whopping 33 goals over that span.

Still, City manager Roberto Mancini sees room for improvement.

“I know that we can find more in Naples,” the Italian said after the Newcastle match. “Napoli this season are playing very well at home. If we want to win in Naples, we should play better than we did this afternoon.

“The atmosphere will be fantastic and it will be a very difficult game,” added Mancini, who knows a thing or two about playing in Naples from his time as a Serie A player and manager with Fiorentina, Lazio and Inter Milan.

Boosted by some of the most rabid fans in Italy, Napoli is unbeaten at home in 10 matches since returning to Europe after a 13-year absence in 2008. The last foreign team to prevail at the San Paolo Stadium was Eintracht Frankfurt in December 1994.

And City couldn’t beat Napoli at home, needing a late goal from Aleksandar Kolarov to rescue a 1-1 draw after Edinson Cavani had given Napoli the lead in September.

Napoli has won just one of its last seven matches in all competitions but will want to build off an impressive second half in the 3-2 loss to Bayern earlier this month.

“This squad is going through a growth phase and we’re getting used to dealing with the double challenge of Serie A and the Champions League,” Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri said.

Both sides are fully healthy and have a range of weapons in attack.

Bankrolled by Abu Dhabi owners who have splashed more than $1 billion on the club since their takeover in 2008, City forwards Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli have already scored a combined 26 goals in the Premier League this season.

Aguero is the son-in-law of Diego Maradona, who led Napoli to Italian titles in 1987 and 1990.

Napoli relies on its “Three Tenors” of Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik — who combined for 43 goals in Serie A last season.