Overview
After two consecutive defeats, Napoli somewhat revived their spirit when they defeated Fiorentina 2-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last weekend, thereby salvaging hope in a season full of upheavals.
Previously, the 0-3 defeat to Juventus heavily damaged the ambition to defend the Serie A throne. Not stopping there, Antonio Conte's team was also eliminated from the European arena when Chelsea's unbeaten streak lasting a year at the Maradona stadium was ended just 3 days later.
However, Napoli reacted strongly. Young talent Antonio Vergara scored his second consecutive goal, before Miguel Gutierrez made his mark with a skillful curling shot right after halftime to double the lead.
The 2-1 victory helps Napoli maintain third place and can narrow the gap to 1 point with AC Milan if they continue to win. However, behind them, Juventus, AS Roma and Como are closely following, making the top 4 race suffocating.
In fact, instead of competing for the championship with Inter Milan, Napoli is now facing the problem of winning a Champions League spot. And Conte's concern comes not only from the injury list, but also from the alarming away form. In all competitions, they have lost half of their 16 away matches.
However, before the trip to Liguria, Napoli still has a historical foothold. They have only lost 1 in their last 25 Serie A encounters with Genoa, including a 2-1 home victory in the first leg this season.
In the opposite direction, Genoa has not had too impressive home form recently when only winning 4 points in the last 7 matches at Stadio Luigi Ferraris. This will also be the first time Conte has faced Rossoblu head coach, Daniele De Rossi - a battle of wits between two personalities who were once famous for their fiery playing style when they were players.
De Rossi is transmitting that fighting spirit to Genoa. With only 1 defeat in 6 matches since the beginning of the year, Grifone has gradually escaped the danger zone after a period of almost falling into crisis before he took over.
Genoa is currently 6 points ahead of the relegation group, despite just losing to Lazio 2-3 weeks ago in a bitter scenario, when a late penalty at Stadio Olimpico robbed them of a chance to score points.
However, De Rossi still has reason to be optimistic. Genoa equalized after being led by 2 goals for the second consecutive week - following a dramatic 3-2 victory over Bologna. Including that match, Rossoblu has scored 6 goals in the last 2 home matches, after only winning 1 time in the first 10 matches of the season.
Personnel situation
Napoli's force crisis has not shown any signs of cooling down. The long-term injury list already includes Kevin De Bruyne, Frank Anguissa and Billy Gilmour, now extended with captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo suffering a serious knee sprain in the previous round.
The two winger options Matteo Politano and David Neres are also unable to play. In the goalkeeper position, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic have moved closer to their return, but with a solid performance against Fiorentina, Alex Meret is likely to still be trusted.
On the opposite side, Genoa's medical room is significantly "silly", with only reserve goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist and new signing Tommaso Baldanzi not ready to play.
In attack, number one striker Lorenzo Colombo is likely to continue playing alongside Vitinha.
Expected lineup:
Bijlow, Marcandalli, Ostigard, Vasquez, Norton-Cuffy, Frendrup, Malinovskyi, Ellertsson, Martin, Vitinha, Colombo.
Meret, Rrahmani, Jesus, Buongiorno, Gutierrez, Lobotka, McTominay, Spinazzola, Vergara, Elmas, Hojlund.
The match between Genoa and Napoli takes place at 0:00 AM on February 8th (Vietnam time).
