Mario Balotelli is a great player, says Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly

Kalidou Koulibaly has come out to say Mario Balotelli is a great player ahead of their Uefa Champions League playoff second leg clash at the Allianz Riviera on Tuesday.

Napoli lead the tie 2-0 courtesy of goals from Dries Mertens and Jorginho but the Senegal international is wary of the threat the Italy international poses since he missed the first leg due to injury.

“They have experienced players with talent,” Koulibaly said in the pre-match Press conference.

“We’ll try to play a great game, trying to play our attacking football. Everything is possible in football, but we want to win and we’ll play to try and qualify. The Champions League is a big objective for us.

“We know Balotelli is a great player, everyone knows him and he’s very strong but we have to think about ourselves, we can’t focus on every single player.

“We want to do well tomorrow, I hope we don’t concede any goals.

“It’ll be a very passionate match, we’ll need to be careful for every single minute of the match. “Nice is very dangerous, especially with these two experienced players but the Coach has prepared us well and we know what’s waiting for us tomorrow.”