Napoli look to Dries Mertens, Hirving Lozano, but Kostas Manolas is injured and Lorenzo Insigne dropped against all-attack RB Salzburg and Erling Haaland.

It kicks off at the Red Bull Arena at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Inter-Borussia Dortmund on the LIVEBLOG.

Napoli look to Dries Mertens, Hirving Lozano, but Kostas Manolas is injured and Lorenzo Insigne dropped against all-attack RB Salzburg and Erling Haaland.

It kicks off at the Red Bull Arena at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Inter-Borussia Dortmund on the LIVEBLOG.

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from this game and Inter-Borussia Dortmund on the LIVEBLOG.

The Partenopei have kept three consecutive clean sheets in all competition, but that included disappointing goalless draws with Torino and Genk.

It’s remarkable considering the injury crisis in defence that has ruled out Faouzi Ghoulam, Elseid Hysaj, Nikola Maksimovic and Mario Rui.

Kostas Manolas sustained a knock to the ribs during the 2-0 win over Verona at the weekend and is not moving comfortably, so it was decided not to risk him.

Instead, 23-year-old Sebastiano Luperto makes his career Champions league debut and Giovanni Di Lorenzo is again re-routed to left-back.

Piotr Zielinski and Jose Callejon take the wings, with Insigne again dropped to the bench after the Genk trip.

Mertens is still only one goal away from Diego Armando Maradona’s tally in the Napoli jersey.

His partner this time is not Arkadiusz Milik or Fernando Llorente, but the more agile Chucky Lozano, returning after a bruised ankle on international duty with Mexico.

Napoli have already faced RB Salzburg in the Europa League Round of 16 last season and it was a tense affair, as while the Partenopei won the first leg 3-0 at home and took the early lead in Austria through Milik, they ended up losing 3-1 and only scraping through.

Salzburg are arguably a much stronger team now and can count on 19-year-old sensation Erling Braut Haaland, the son of Alf-Inge Haaland, who scored a hat-trick in the 6-2 win over Genk.

The Norwegian has 18 goals in 12 competitive games for his club this season, including four hat-tricks, so an average of a goal every 48 minutes.

Another danger man is Dominik Szoboszlai, who will turn 19 on Friday and is the youngest player to have scored in the Champions League this season.

Home advantage could be decisive, because RB Salzburg have won their last 13 home games in a row in all competition, since a 0-0 draw with Sturm Graz on March 10.

They are unbeaten at home in all competition since November 2016, 1-0 against Admira Wacker in the Bundesliga. Their most recent European defeat here was 1-0 to Nice in the Europa League group stage on October 20, 2016.

On the other hand, Napoli have not won a Champions League away fixture in three years, so a draw would probably qualify as a positive result here.

They’ve won only one of their last seven European away games, 3-1 at FC Zurich, along with three draws and as many defeats.

RB Salzburg: Stankovic; Kristensen, Ramalho, Wober, Ulmer; Daka, Junuzovic, Mwepu, Minamino; Hwang, Haaland

Salzburg bench: Coronel, Ashimeru, Vallci, Onguene, Koita, Szoboszlai, Okugawa

Napoli: Meret; Malcuit, Koulibaly, Luperto, Di Lorenzo; Callejon, Allan, Fabian Ruiz, Zielinski; Mertens, Lozano

Napoli bench: Ospina, Elmas, Gaetano, Younes, Insigne, Milik, Llorente

Ref: Turpin (FRA)

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