Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti respectful of the Europa League

Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti is ready to get back on the Europa League bike ahead of their clash at Leicester.

The Serie A side face the Foxes at the King Power Stadium on Thursday in their Group C opener.

Napoli have been in the Champions League in four of the previous five seasons and reached the last 32 of the Europa League last term, but Spalletti will give the competition the respect it deserves.

“It is the bicycle we have dreamt of peddling,” he said.

“The main thing is being credible with the players. We have spent two months trying to find something attractive and something which will stimulate the players so they can give the maximum they can when they are wearing a Napoli shirt.

“Players shouldn’t take this as a lower level of football. They still need to achieve the highest level.

“It’s not like clicking a switch, though, you have to do something every day and work at it. It’s maximum respect and desire to obtain the best result in this competition.”

Napoli have won all three Serie A games this season, including a 2-1 win over Juventus on Saturday.

Lorenzo Insigne came off against Juve with a knee injury but Spalletti confirmed he expects his skipper to be fit.

He added: “Lorenzo has trained this morning and he has done all the training, assuming when he gets up he feels good he could be in the game. He has only missed one proper training session so he is looking like he will be in the starting line-up.

“We are at the beginning (of the season) so we are not thinking about changing four or five players.”