Napoli vs. Villarreal: Partenopei Must Beat Spanish Side to Keep Pace in Group A

Villarreal travels to Stadio San Paolo to take on Napoli as both teams continue Champions League play in Group A. The Partenopei opened their tournament with an impressive road draw against Manchester City, while El Submarino Amarillo suffered a home loss to Bayern Munich.

That opening fixture draw gives Napoli a chance to advance from a group where Bayern Munich and Manchester City were heavily favored to move on. However, a home win over Villarreal is a must if they want to keep those knockout stage hopes alive.

The Partenopei are led by striker Edinson Cavani, who has scored three goals in four league games and gave them a brief lead against City before Aleksandar Kolarov saved the day for the English Premier League squad.

The 24-year-old Cavani had a breakout campaign in '10-'11, scoring 26 goals and adding six assists in 35 games for Napoli after coming over from Palermo. He seems to be in fine form to start the season and will need to keep it that way if the Serie A side are to keep pace with the group's elite squads.

Villarreal finished last season fourth in the La Liga table, but haven't been able to match that success. They enter Tuesday's clash after a disappointing draw with Athletic Bilbao in which they were outplayed for the majority of the match.

While Nilmar and Giuseppe Rossi have formed a nice tandem up top for El Submarino Amarillo, they haven't received enough support from the rest of the team to find a winning formula.

It isn't a lack of talent, as both Bruno and Cani are talented midfielders and Carlos Marchena is adept at moving forward, but rather, a lack of early-season rhythm.

Even though Villarreal should improve as the season goes on, it might be too late to save its Champions League stay, especially considering they were big underdogs heading into the tournament.

Napoli must take full advantage of that lack of form to claim all three points on Tuesday. The City draw was nice, but any points they don't gain against El Submarino Amarillo will make things more difficult in the late stages of group play.

The Partenopei will prevail after a hard-fought battle that will keep fans on the edge of their seats.

Prediction: Napoli 2 Villarreal 1