Let's be honest, coming into the match today did any of us have any serious hope that Napoli would manage to sneak into the knockout round? Lets get a show of hands... Anyone? Bueller? I didn't think so.

All I wanted this morning was for Napoli to head to the Europa league with their heads held high, and put on a performance worthy of praise. They delivered just that and they now are the only team ever to be eliminated from the champions league group stage on 12 points.

Napoli proved that it could play fearlessly against Europes elite, it's just unfortunate that they had to prove that in the toughest group. Napoli also proved, once again that the Stadio San Paolo is a veritable fortress when it comes to European soccer. In the last three years of European football Napoli has now beaten Man City (2-1), Chelsea (3-1), Arsenal (2-0) and Dortmund (2-1) as well as managing a draw against Bayern (1-1). That is a fearsome list of opponents vanquished as Man City went on to win the Prem that year, Chelsea won the CL that year, Dortmund were runners up last year, Arsenal are a knockout round mainstay, and Bayern have been finalists in three of the past 4 years (completing the holy treble last year).

Unfortunately, Dortmund's ineptitude in front of an open goal had me believing that Napoli could get lucky and sneak through. Even though Marseille had been reduced to 10 men in the 34th minute, something seem to be in the water and once Higuain scored, I put caution to the wind and held a firm belief that they could do it. Suddenly, everything seemed to be working in our favor: Arteta received his marching orders, Insigne was creating a wealth of scoring opportunities from the left, and Marseille had held Dortmund at bay.

Then with less than 5 minutes left in both games, fans, coaches and players alike received word that Dortmund had their breakthrough. With that, it all came crashing down on me, and, as the final whistle was blown, I was completely worn out; crushed by the emotion of it all.

Looking back at the 6 group games, the same things that have contributed to our currently poor league form were the same ones that did us in in the CL, namely our defense. Our defense is simply too porous to compete at the highest European level away from home. The clean sheet they kept today was more a result of Arsenal's defensive minded starting XI than a testament to Napoli's defense. Conceding 9 goals in the first 5 games is not good enough to advance, and clearly that will be the focus of the January transfer window. It just didn't come soon enough for the Partenopei faithful.

As crushing as bowing out of the tournament was, I wasn't angry or upset. I was proud to be a Napoli fan. I was proud that when the curtain closed on the Group of Death the ragazzi had left everything on the pitch and had fought until the very end

All we can hope for now is that the spirit they showed in that last game carries over to Serie A and they can start making up ground on Roma and Juve.

Forza Napoli Sempre