Walter Mazzarri maintains he “has to make choices” between Serie A and Europe after Napoli’s second string side lost to Dnipro.

Walter Mazzarri maintains he “has to make choices” between Serie A and Europe after Napoli’s second string side lost to Dnipro.

“It’s a great shame and we were unlucky, as we conceded in the first minute with a dubious free kick with Federico Fernandez being dragged down and created many scoring opportunities, especially in the second half,” said the Coach of their 3-1 defeat in Ukraine.

The game changed when Edinson Cavani and Goran Pandev came on in the second half, but it was too little, too late.

“We have to make choices. We were criticised when we played our best side in the Champions League and ended up fifth in Serie A, now we are criticised for rotating the squad.

“It’s not as if I used a bunch of kids out there today, as we had players like Blerim Dzemaili and Camilo Zuniga, while we have to give Christian Maggio a rest otherwise he loses sharpness.

“People criticise and ask why we don’t use Lorenzo Insigne or Edu Vargas more often, but we saw tonight the difference in a step up between Serie B or the Chilean League to European top level football.”

Despite a second consecutive defeat in which Napoli have now conceded six goals, the Partenopei could still qualify.

Thanks to PSV drawing 1-1 with AIK this evening, Dnipro are out in front on nine points followed by PSV on four and Napoli three.

“We have taken this approach for the first three games. Seeing as we are still in the running for qualification, we will re-evaluate the situation,” noted Mazzarri in a hint at scrapping rotation for the remaining group matches.

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