MAKING PROGRESS

Napoli have made a lot of progress over the year according to the manager Walter Mazzarri. He has seen his team win the Coppa Italia last season, while also making incredible strides in domestic and European competitions as well.

The team have emerged as one of the competitors for Juventus this season, while they also made it into the last 16 stage of the Champions League only to be beaten by the eventual champions Chelsea last season. Even though the club recently had troubles in terms of maintaining the form, 2012 has been a year to remember according to Mazzarri.

The presence of players like Edinson Cavani and Marek Hamsik have truly transformed the fortunes of Napoli, who have challenged for a title after a long time since the days of Diego Maradona. Even though there have been many highlights of the year, Mazzarri thinks that the 2012 Coppa Italia final victory over Juventus special because it helped them lift the trophy in stock Napoli beat Juventus 2-0 in the final of the competition to lift the trophy. After recently suffering points penalty, Napoli have dropped to the fifth position. However, they remain just two points behind the second placed team Lazio.

"It was an important year, thanks to all the work of the staff and the players. It's easy to find yourself in a high league position, but the difficult part is staying there. Napoli succeeded and continued to grow. We also added consistency to our results and this is a fundamental step for a club to make. It's been a year of great progress and great value for our supporters," said Mazzarri. After suffering a blip in form during the months of November and December, Napoli finished the year strongly with the 2-0 victory against Siena.