Overview
Napoli have surprisingly stumbled in the last two rounds, including a defeat against Atalanta and a draw with Inter Milan. Before round 13, coach Antonio Conte's team was still leading with 26 points but the gap was narrowed by the opponents behind.
At this point, Napoli need a win to lift their spirits and continue their title race. Luckily for the home team Diego Armando Maradona, they are about to face Roma, a club that is deep in crisis.
After 12 rounds, Napoli only won 3 matches, earned 13 points and ranked 12th. In the last 5 matches in Serie A, Roma lost 4 times. That was also the "last straw" that caused coach Ivan Juric to be fired and replaced by Claudio Ranieri.
The urgent problem that Ranieri needs to solve at Roma is to improve the defense. In the last 5 matches in all competitions, the Olimpico team has conceded 12 goals. This will also be a weakness that Napoli can exploit.
Although Napoli does not have an impressive scoring performance, they have names that know how to shine at the right time such as Lukaku, Kvaratskhelia or McTominay. Besides, a solid defense is also a factor that helps Napoli achieve high results since the beginning of the season.
Napoli have had good results against Roma in recent head-to-head matches. Specifically, Naoli has won 5, drawn 3 and lost only 1 of the last 9 matches. At home, Napoli can completely defeat Roma once more.
The last time Roma won at Napoli's home ground was back in 2018.
Human resources situation
Napoli have no new injuries ahead of their game against Roma and are likely to stick with the same starting line-up as in their 1-1 draw with Inter last time out.
On the other side of the front line, Roma will be without Eldor Shomurodov due to injury. Meanwhile, the possibility of Mario Hermoso, Alexis Saelemaekers and Paulo Dybala playing is still open.
Expected lineup:
Napoli: Meret, Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Buongiorno, Mathias Olivera, Anguissa, Gilmour, McTominay, Politano, Lukaku, Kvaratskhelia.
Roma: Svilar, Mancini, Ndicka, Tasende, Celik, Cristante, Kone, El Shaarawy, Matias Soule, Pisilli, Dovbyk.
The match between Napoli and AS Roma takes place at 0:00 on the morning of November 25 (Vietnam time).
