Champions League fans clash in huge street fight as chairs and glass bottles thrown

Scenes turned ugly in Naples ahead of Napoli's Champions League clash with Sporting CP on Wednesday night. The two sides had been paired together for the second match of this season's league phase, but before the action got underway on the pitch, fans from both sets of clubs brawled in the streets.

Social media footage depicts groups of fans throwing missiles, including glass bottles and chains, at each other in the streets of Naples. The altercation took place in what looked to be a back street in the Italian city, with concerned locals watching on from the pavement.

Sirens were eventually heard in the social media clip after several minutes of fighting between the supporters, with those involved quickly feeling the scene. Tensions had been brewing ahead of this fixture, with Napoli fans setting off fireworks in the middle of the night outside Sporting's hotel.

The Sporting squad had already endured a disrupted journey to Italy. Their plane had been delayed by four hours at Lisbon airport because of an air traffic control problem. As a result, Sporting only landed in Naples at 11pm Tuesday night, meaning head coach Rui Borges' press conference was cancelled.

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Italian outlet Corriere dello Sport claim that six Napoli supporters were arrested and that a Sporting fan was taken to hospital, but their condition is not thought to be serious or life-threatening.

But it isn't the first time violence has marred the build-up to a European fixture in Naples, with chaos having ensued when Napoli met Eintracht Frankfurt in 2023.The two clubs were meeting in the Champions League round of 16, with hundreds of Frankfurt fans having been involved in vicious brawls with local police. Fans of the German side had set cars alight, thrown objects and clashed with riot police in the city centre.

It sparked an angry reaction from the locals, including the Napoli ultras, with reports that buses carrying Eintracht fans had been attacked. The violence came despite the fans from Germany having been banned from attending the match at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after a series of arrests were made in the reverse fixture.

Back on the pitch, Napoli are in need of a result against the Portuguese outfit, having lost their opening match of the league phase against Manchester City. Antonio Conte's side come into the fixture on the back of a disappointing Serie A loss to AC Milan, meanwhile Sporting took maximum points from their Champions League opener.

Borges' side defeated Champions League newbies Kairat Almaty on opening night, and have won six of their opening seven matches in the league. The reigning Portuguese champions sit three points off current leaders Porto, who have won seven from seven so far.