Overview
Napoli had to accept the reality that they could not successfully defend the Serie A championship. The Southern Italian team was helpless to watch Inter Milan win the championship last weekend, thereby officially ending the reigning champion's reign.
However, with Antonio Conte's fierce personality, Napoli certainly cannot lose focus. When the season is only three rounds left, the competition for a place in the top 4 is still extremely tense.
However, Napoli has a great advantage in the race to win a ticket to the UEFA Champions League next season. After welcoming Bologna, they will successively face Pisa - a relegated team - before closing the season with a confrontation with Udinese.
In addition, Roma, the team currently ranked fifth, is currently 6 points behind Napoli. This means that the Naples representative can only lose a Champions League spot if an unbelievable collapse occurs in the final stage of the season.
After the 0-0 draw against Como last week, Conte's team will return to Diego Armando Maradona's home ground. Before welcoming Bologna, the opponent they once defeated 2-0 in the Italian Super Cup semi-finals, Napoli has an extremely impressive home record with 20 wins and only one defeat in the last 28 matches in Serie A.
On the other side, Bologna won the right to participate in the Italian Super Cup thanks to the emotional Coppa Italia championship about a year ago. However, the current campaign of the Emilia team is gradually coming to an end.
After a goalless draw with Cagliari last weekend, Bologna has gone through 3 consecutive matches without scoring in Serie A since being eliminated from the UEFA Europa League.
Vincenzo Italiano's team is likely to drop out of the top half of the rankings. Even seventh place is not necessarily enough to help them win a ticket to the UEFA Europa Conference League, because it also depends on the result of Inter Milan's national cup final.
In a context where there is almost no chance to return to the UEFA arena next season, Bologna does not have many goals to pursue. However, the red and green team can still be confident thanks to their fairly stable away form.
In contrast to poor home record in 2026, Bologna currently has the sixth best away record in Serie A. In addition, recent results against Napoli also bring them no small hope.
Despite losing to Napoli in the Super Cup match in December last year, Bologna has only lost one of the last six encounters between the two teams in Serie A, including a 2-0 victory in the second leg last season.
Personnel situation
Napoli captain, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, returned to the bench in the previous round. This experienced defender is likely to reappear in the main squad after a period of absence since January.
Meanwhile, Antonio Vergara has returned to full training. Currently, only Romelu Lukaku and David Neres are still not ready to play.
On Bologna's side, Riccardo Orsolini is still the team's number one scorer. However, most of his 8 goals were scored before the Christmas break, and this player has also never scored in 13 encounters with Napoli in Serie A.
Expected lineup:
Milinkovic-Savic, Beukema, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Politano, Lobotka, McTominay, Gutierrez, De Bruyne, Alisson, Hojlund.
Pessina, Zortea, Lucumi, Helland, Miranda, Ferguson, Freuler, Moro, Orsolini, Castro, Rowe.
The match between Napoli and Bologna takes place at 1:45 am on May 12 (Vietnam time).
