Athletic hold “no fear” of Napoli, says Aduriz

Athletic Club return to work in Lezama on Friday after a day’s rest and coach Ernesto Valverde marked the occasion by opening the doors of the training facilities to the general public. Later, Aritz Aduriz attended reporters and spoke about the forthcoming Champions League Play-off tie against Napoli.

You trained apart with Beñat today, any problems?

No, nothing serious – just a faint twinge to one of my thigh muscles; I worked aprt just as a precaution but I’m fine.

The much-anticipated clash with Napoli is drawing closer...

The pre-season’s over, we are gearing up for the Champions League and personally, I am really fired up and cannot wait for the day to arrive.

The idea is to get a decent result from the first leg over there?

Our objective is to get the best possible result in Naples. We know that we are in for a difficult game and it’s not going to be easy at all to take a good result but we’re going there to try. We have confidence in what we can do, we have faith in our team.

What worries you most about Napoli?

We’ve been studying them and we have a few more days to get a clearer idea of what kind of team we will be up against. We’ve been looking at them ever since the draw was made. We know that they are a compact side who have pace up front, quality and a coach who will know all about us. They are an experienced side and that will make this tie especially difficult.

The [pre-season] defeats to Osasuna (3-1) and Toulouse (2-0) were a wake-up call?

During the pre-season it’s important to gain good results as it builds confidence and reaffirms that all of the work you are doing is paying off. But it’s still just the pre-season and a the time when the team is getting back into shape so that we will be in the best condition to face the start of the new season. What matters is preparing well and I think we have been doing that.

Have you been in touch with Fernando Llorente for any inside knowledge on Napoli?

I haven’t but a few of the lads have. He told them about how difficult it is for visiting teams over there and a bit about what kind of team they are. He said Juve had a tough time there last season.

What are the probabilities of Athletic making the group stage?

I’m not going to talk about that. We know it’s going to be a tough tie but we’re confident in our own abilities. We have shown that we can compete with any team; we won’t be going over there with any hang-ups, we’ll be going for the tie right from kick-off. I’m sure they will be just as worried about us.

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