It's been nice to see you Swansea, to see you nice….

Swansea head to Italy on the back of an entertaining, if ultimately fruitless, 4-3 defeat against Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.

As old Brucie Forsyth would say: “Good game, good game my loves but nothing in this game for losing 4-3”.

As well as Swansea played, you can’t help but wonder if they had been thrashed 5-0 they would be better placed for this match (6pm ITV4). At least with that kind of defeat they would have downed tools relatively early in the match whereas they’ve ended up having a tough match, only four days ago, and now have to regroup.

I thought the first leg of this match was a pitiful affair. In the end 0-0 might not have been considered a bad result for Swansea but worryingly they had 69% of the possession and failed to take advantage.

I was hardly that impressed with Napoli either but Rafa Benitez’s side are hard to beat at home – they’ve lost just one league game at home this season and remember also overcame Arsenal 2-0 at the Stadio San Paolo in the group stages of the Champions League earlier this season. They have a manager with a first class CV for this competition.

Napoli will again rely on Pepe Reina in goal as Rafael was injured in the first leg at the Liberty Stadium and substituted at half time. Both keepers pulled off some excellent saves to keep Napoli not only in it but as odds on favourites to progress in the Europa Cup.

The winners will go on to play Porto or Eintracht Frankfurt in the next round and I’m taking Napoli to defy a one goal handicap on the Star Sports, three way handicap, at around 5/4.

As for Swansea. It’s been nice to see you, to see you nice……

A great result on Tuesday with Olympiacos winning 2-0 and gaining a profit of 22.5 points to the recommended bet on Star Spreads Didn’t they play well (EDITOR: Enough of the Brucie quotes now please.)

Napoli all the well tonight – I’m a buyer at 1.3 on the superiority.

RECOMMENDED BET (1-10 points)

BUY NAPOLI / SWANSEA for 10 points at around 1.3 with Star Spreads

RUNNING RETURN (FEBRUARY): PROFIT 91.50 POINTS

RUNNING RETURN (YEAR): PROFIT 68.30 POINTS

• Any spread prices quoted are indicative and as always prices are subject to fluctuation.
• Please note the opinion, views and forecasts above are of the author and not of Star Spreads.