Champions League : Would Borussia Dortmund Be Knocked Out By Napoli In The Group Of Death?

The highly successful German side showed a magnificent display last season in the Champions league despite being drawn in the group of death comprising of Real Madrid – then Spanish champions, & Manchester City – then English champions. Last year, they were unbeaten in the Champions league till Real Madrid beat them 2-1 in the first leg of the semifinals but that did not stop them from reaching the finals as they defeated Jose Mourinho’s team 4-1 at home in the second leg before losing out the trophy to their bitter rivals Bayern Munich in one of the most enthralling finals which finished 2-1 in favour of Bayern.
However the case has been altogether different this year with them losing 2 out of their first 4 league ties, sitting now at just 6 points from the first 4 matches and fearing the chances of being knocked out by Arsenal and Napoli. Arsenal have been in superb form, are presently 4 points clear atop the table in the English premier league and Napoli are doing extremely well and sit at the 3rd place in Serie A, also defeated Dortmund 2-1 in the first league tie. Present position of Dortmund in UCL is shown below in the table, rather an uncomfortable position to be in because Arsenal would definitely be beating Marseille at home tomorrow and would be cruising to the round of 16.
 
However the difference would lie in tomorrow’s match of Borussia Dortmund vs Napoli where a Napoli win would definitely show the door to the German side. Recently, Dortmund lost 3-0 to their bitter rivals Bayern Munich thus following their not so comprehensive form this season in the Bundesliga.
Moreover, the biggest shock for Dortmund is the unavailability of their 3 regular back four namely Mats Hummels who will be out until January with torn heel ligament, left-back Schmelzer on a three-week lay-off after tearing muscle fibres in his left calf at Wembley and Neven Subotić  out for at least six months after damaging cruciate ligaments in his knee. These are definitely not good signs for the Blacks and Yellows. The signing of the 34-year old German international defender Manuel Friedrich would not add much to their cause and they would still see themselves ramped by the strong Napoli side with Gonzalo Higuain being in good form lately. The only ray of hope if at all for Dortmund is the unavailability of the Napoli captain Marek Hamsik who will definitely be missing this decisive tie after the midfielder suffered a foot injury during the 1-0 home defeat by Parma FC.
The path ahead does not look very bright for the German side and their chances of winning are very bleak unless they put up a splendid attacking performance as they did through all of the last season. A win against Napoli would make them a stronger contender than the Italian side because Dortmund have their last match at Marseille which would be rather easy considering Marseille have lost both their home matches till now. Napoli will face a very tough last match against Arsene Wenger’s side which is presently in sublime form. So, its time for Jurgen Klopp’s side to gear up and rise to the occasion to avoid further humiliation.