SWANSEA suffered a gut-wrenching defeat in Napoli as their hopes of reaching the last-16 of the Europa League were crushed in Italy.
Jonathan De Guzman’s goal, which cancelled out Lorenzo Insigne’s early opener, had put the Welsh club on course to stun Rafa Benitez’s star-studded Serie A side.
But Gonzalo Higuain struck a ferocious volley to put Napoli back in front, before Gokhan Inler got a third on the break at the death.
The result will have hurt head coach Garry Monk and his players, but, aside from making a clear statement of his ability to replace Michael Laudrup in the long term, he will know more performances of this standard will see them escape the relegation battle with something to spare.
Not that it was any consolation for the 34-year-old as a poor week for Premier League sides in Europe continued.
“I am gutted for the players, but they can hold their heads high and be proud, I feel for them,” he said.
“Everything that was asked of them, they did it. To do that in such a difficult place just shows how good they are.
“I feel deflated but I could not ask for more. We played 180 minutes against a very good side and we pushed them all the way and had the chances to win four or five games.
“The boys deserved so much more. We showed the desire to win the game and we showed belief we could get a result.
Swansea were treated to a typically hostile reception but, having survived an early scare, the Swans began to settle and could have taken an 11th minute lead.
Pablo Hernandez, enjoying his deployment in the hole behind Wilfried Bony, produced a wonderful diagonal pass to find Marvin Emnes’ run, but Raul Albiol got black to clear his goalbound effort after the winger had beaten Pepe Reina.
But the Italian side made no mistake in the 16th minute. when Higuain’s flick foiled Swansea’s attempted offside trap and allowed Insigne a clean run on goal to loft the ball over Michel Vorm as the Dutch keeper raced off his line.
Emnes meandered infield to find Bony as the striker dropped deep. The Ivorian delivered a first time pass into De Guzman’s pass for the Dutch midfielder to steer the ball beyond Reina and into the far corner.
But something had to give, and with 12minutes to play Ben Davies and Chico Flores failed to deal with Dries Mertens’ ball across the box and Higuain’s predatory instincts took over as he flashed a volley past Vorm.