Napoli 1, Trabzonspor 0, Europa League match recap: Easy advancement

Frankly, no one would blame you if you didn't watch this match or even fell asleep during it. It wasn't a terribly exciting match, thanks to the 4-0 aggregate scoreline coming in and the foregone conclusion that Napoli would win the tie. But Napoli found a fifth goal early on and pretty thoroughly shut down Trabzonspor after that, securing themselves a berth in the Europa League round of 16.

The match was pretty much one-way traffic right from the get-go. Tabsonzspor did a poor job of maintaining possession, and Napoli were able to get forward pretty freely with long balls over the top from Jorginho and Faouzi Ghoulam. One of those found Jose Callejon with room to work with in the penalty area in the 19th minute, though the tight angle allowed Trabzonspor goalkeeper Hakan Arikan to parry away the strong shot. Jonathan De Guzman was in position to pounce on the rebound, and while his finish lacked grace, De Guzman put the shot away and ended his long streak of futility in front of goal.

That goal pretty well put the final nail in the coffin of this tie, after after that both sides mostly just coasted through the match. Sure, there were plenty of shots - 21 in total, 12 of which were taken by Napoli - but there wasn't much actual danger in the rest of the match. Trabzonspor lost the possession battle and only got two shots on target, one of them coming from an offside position that was called off.

Jose Callejon ran rampant down the right flank against a very poor Ishak Dogan, and his four shots on frame lead everyone in the match. He also hit the crossbar once and was a fraction offside during the buildup to what looked at first like a Napoli goal in the second half, getting on the end of a gorgeous pass from Dries Mertens and setting up a tap-in for Gonzalo Higuain. It was a shame that the Spaniard couldn't get a goal for his efforts, because this was the best he's looked in some time.

The win was one of five for Italy on the day, with all of the country's representatives in the Europa League making the round of 16. It's great news for the nation, which has too often struggled in Europe in recent years. Italy desperately needs to rebuild its coefficient ranking in UEFA to try and get closer to having four Champions League spots again, and all five teams making deep Europa League runs would be a nice boost to those efforts.

Napoli: Rafael; Mesto, Henrique, Britos, Ghoulam; Jorginho, Inler; Callejon (Hamsik 77'), De Guzman (Gabbiadini 69'), Mertens; Higuain (Zapata 63')

Goals: De Guzman 19'

Trabzonspor: Hakan Arikan; Salih Dursun (Yavru 88'), Bosingwa, Aykut Demir, Ishak Dogan; Mehmet Ekici, Fatih Atik (Aydogdu 77'), Medjani; Ozer Hurmaci, Oscar Cardozo, Erkan Zengin (Yilmaz 84')

Goals: None