Milan: Napoli coach Rafael Benitez has called for focus ahead of a trip to in-form Palermo that could prove decisive as his side continue their quest to secure Champions League football next season.
Napoli have won their last four games on the trot in Italy’s Serie A to tighten their hold on third place, while their promising run of late has also fired a warning shot to title challengers Roma.
Roma finally ended a run of four consecutive draws last week but, while Rudi Garcia’s men are seven points behind leaders and champions Juventus, they are only four ahead of Napoli.
Napoli’s players can scent the lure of the Champions League and are desperate to return, having failed to get past the group stages two years ago and failed to qualify for the group stages last summer.
Attacking midfielder Marek Hamsik believes facing Palermo away on Saturday will be tough but the Slovakian said: “We’re fighting for second place and we want to close the gap on Roma as much as possible.
“It won’t be easy away to Palermo, if you consider they held us to a 3-3 draw at home.... but we want to keep on trying to get closer to Roma.”
Benitez has attributed his side’s purple patch to taking things one game at a time and repeated: “We have to keep our focus, we’ve won four games consecutively but we should be looking only towards our next game and not at our standing in the league table.”
