Champions League line-ups: Villarreal vs. Napoli

Scott McTominay gets his first start since heart surgery, joining Kevin De Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund as Napoli visit Villarreal in the Champions League.

It kicks off at the Estadio de la Ceramica at 20.00 UK time (21.00 CEST).

The Partenopei had a very tough opening Champions League fixture and capitulated 1-0 at home to Arsenal, which was their third consecutive defeat in all competition.

Things have improved since then for Max Allegri, scraping a win over Bologna, 1-1 draw at Fiorentina, and Saturday’s 3-0 victory against Frosinone.

McTominay made his comeback as a substitute a month on from surgery to correct a mild benign arrhythmia, and here gets his first start.

The absentee list remains extensive, as Napoli miss Frank Anguissa, Mathias Olivera, Antonio Vergara, Alisson Santos, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno.

Giovane wasn’t in the Champions League squad list until this week, but has been drafted in and thrown straight into the starting XI for the new 3-4-2-1 formation with De Bruyne and Hojlund.

Vanja Milinkovic-Savic steps in for Alex Meret in goal, while Giovanni Di Lorenzo shifts over to the left in order to make way for Matteo Politano.

Villarreal opened their Champions League campaign with a 3-2 defeat away to Borussia Dortmund and sit 11th in LaLiga table after a stuttering start to the season.

They lost 1-0 to Real Madrid at the weekend in a fiery encounter that saw Vinicius Junior sent off for pulling Nathan Saliba’s hair.

Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi, Nicolas Pepe and former Inter midfielder Tajon Buchanan are out injured.

Ex-Juventus defender Renato Veiga features, with Gerard Moreno and Georges Mikautadze pushing Ayoze Perez to the bench.

Villarreal vs. Napoli line-ups

Villarreal: Luiz Junior; Mourino, Pau Navarro, Renato Veiga, Carlos Romero; Santi Comesana, Pape Gueye, Saliba, Alberto Moleiro; Gerard Moreno, Mikautadze

Villarreal bench: Ruben Gomez, Logan Costa, Freeman, Alassane, Foyth, Akhomach, Carlos Macia, Oluwaseyi, Ayoze Perez, Sergi Cardona, El Jmili, Joselillo Gaitan

Napoli: Milinkovic-Savic; Rafa Marin, Rrahmani, Badiashile; Politano, Gilmour, McTominay, Di Lorenzo; Giovane, De Bruyne; Hojlund

Napoli bench: Meret, Contini, Neres, Lucca, Beukema, Spinazzola, Lobotka, Lang

Ref: Siebert (GER)

13-10-2026 20:00

MatchDay 2

Estadio de la Cerámica

Season Analytics

Villarreal

Positions

Napoli

SEASON TOTAL

VIL HOME

0 0 0

0 0 1

Last matches

24 28

Position

SEASON TOTAL

NAP AWAY

0 0 0

0 0 1

Last matches