Friday’s Serie A match between Napoli and Juventus at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona is the highlight of the weekend.
Napoli and Juventus currently sit atop the Serie A table heading into the weekend’s action.
Napoli, who continues to lead the standings, beat Sampdoria easily last weekend to get their winning streak back on track. It was the kind of commanding performance they required following a lacklustre showing against Inter Milan at San Siro in their opening game following the World Cup break. In a 1-0 loss that appeared to widen the title race once more, Inter limited the Partenopei to very little.
Napoli, however, has increased their lead in the table to 7 points following a weekend of very favourable outcomes that saw AC Milan, Inter, and Lazio all concede equalisers in stoppage time.
This Napoli team is the quintessential example of the modern Serie A because they play with perhaps the most freedom among the top five leagues in Europe. Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, have the most goal involvement in the division.
The fact that they have scored 59 goals in 23 games this season shows why they are so far ahead of the competition and how easily they advanced through their Champions League group. Given that Napoli lost to Inter just over a week ago and will now play Juventus and Roma in the following two weeks, this will be an intriguing test of their ability to win the title.
The seven-point gap appears to be healthy, but Maurizio Sarri’s Napoli struggled in 2015–16 and 2017–18 with Juve hot on their heels, so Luciano Spalletti’s biggest test is yet to come.
Juve is undoubtedly on the move; after such a disastrous start that saw their home crowd turn their backs on the team, they are currently in second place.
They have risen in the standings thanks to an incredible eight-game winning streak, during which they have not given up a single goal. They won eight consecutive games in order to win the Scudetto for the first time since 2018, when Massimiliano Allegri was still in charge.
They beat Udinese in the dying minutes thanks to some brilliant play from the returning Federico Chiesa, who also set up Danilo for another 1-0 victory.
Juventus fans will be thrilled to welcome back Chiesa, arguably the best player in the division, as they look to advance on an unlikely title challenge that is now very likely. It wasn’t the first time they had waited until the last minute since they had resumed play the week prior, either, in their victory over Udinese.
They defeated Cremonese in their first game back by a solitary goal to nil once more, needing an injury time free kick from Arkadiusz Milik to secure the victory. Juventus has kept more clean sheets at this point in any Serie A season than Cagliari in 1966–1967, as Allegri’s team has 12 clean sheets after just 17 games.
The team with the best defensive record in Serie A has only failed to win the Scudetto once in the previous 15 seasons, and Juventus has only allowed seven goals this year, six fewer than the next-best team, league leaders, and upcoming opponents, Napoli.
Italians believe that the Old Lady are beginning to resemble their former selves, winning in spite of their shortcomings and playing superb defense—qualities they displayed before the mess of the previous two seasons and despite all the turmoil at the club’s board level.
Napoli Team News
The only adjustments to Spalletti’s Napoli team could all be tactical since there are no new injury worries. Elif Elmas, who replaced Piotr Zielinski in midfield for the trip to Samp, gave a strong performance and secured the victory with a penalty. As a result, the Macedonian may keep his position.
At left-back, Mathias Olivera and Mario Rui will compete for the starting position, and Kosovar Amir Rrahmani could take Juan Jesus’ place in the centre of defence.
Possible Lineup
Alex Meret; Di Lorenzo, Min-jae, Rrahmani, Olivera; Zambo Anguissa, Lobotka, Zielinski; Kvaratskhelia, Politano, Victor Osimhen
Juventus Team News
Allegri and Juventus must once again deal with a staggering list of injury absentees. While Mattia De Sciglio and Bremer are uncertain, Vlahovic, Pogba, Bonucci, and Cuadrado are all out.
Angel Di Maria was able to rejoin the team after his World Cup exploits with Argentina, and Chiesa had more time to adjust to life after his terrible knee injury thanks to Italy’s absence from the competition.
Authentic full-backs In place of Bremer, Bonucci, and Federico Gatti, who were all out against Udinese, Danilo and Alex Sandro were used as temporary centre backs.
Possible Lineup
Szczesny; Danilo, Rugani, Gatti; McKennie, Adrien Rabiot, Locatelli, Miretti, Filip Kostic; Milik, Angel Di Maria
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