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Sarri's Sizzling Napoli Have the Tools to Knock Real Madrid off Their Perch

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Napoli’s last trip to the Santiago Bernabeu didn’t go so well. Fresh from celebrating being crowned Serie A champions for the first time in the 1986/87 campaign, the Partenopei were pitted against Real Madrid, who promptly showed Diego Maradona and Co. that they were not yet part of the European elite.

Under Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker, they would run out 2-0 winners thanks to a penalty from Michel and an own goal by the aptly named Fernando de Napoli, eventually eliminating the Italian side 3-1 on aggregate.

To make the game even more surreal, UEFA had forced the Spanish champions to play behind closed doors as a punishment for crowd trouble against Bayern Munich a year earlier, per Marca.