Serie A leaders Juventus are hoping to extend their winning streak to six games in all competitions when they visit rivals Napoli at San Paolo Stadium on Sunday evening. The reverse fixture, played at the end of August, was a delight for neutral fans, it ended 4-3 for the Bianconeri thanks to a stoppage-time own-goal from Kalidou Koulibaly after Napoli had fought back from 3-0 down. Overall, Juventus have won four of the last six direct matches in all competitions and all the last three.
Napoli are still looking to find the right tempo and the expected results under new head coach Gennaro Gattuso, but so far things have been going well only in Coppa Italia. This week Gattuso and his men did very well to grab a 1-0 victory over trophy holders Lazio in the Italian Cup quarter-finals, a most welcome breath of fresh air for them after three consecutive Serie A defeats. They need to do a lot better in the league, though, and they need to do it fast as they are 11th in the league table and 14 points away from the top four. Kevin Malcuit, Faouzi Ghoulam, Kalidou Koulibaly, Nikola Maksimovic, Dries Mertens, Alex Meret and Allan are all injured for the home side.
Juventus have hit good form at a very important moment of the season, they have won their last five matches in all competitions and managed to build a four-point gap over Inter at the top of the Serie A table. Moreover, they qualified for the Coppa Italia semi-finals after a good 3-1 victory over Roma this week. The Bianconeri have won their last five Serie A matches as well, scoring thirteen goals in the process. Aaron Ramsey and Paulo Dybala were rested in midweek and should make the first eleven on Saturday, while Giorgio Chiellini, Sami Khedira, Mattia De Sciglio, Merih Demiral and Danilo are injured.
Probable line-ups:
Napoli: Ospina - Hysaj, Manolas, Lorenzo, Rui - Ruiz, Demme, Zielinski - Callejon, Milik, Insigne
Juventus: Szczesny - Cuadrado, Bonucci, De Ligt, Sandro - Bentancur, Pjanic, Matuidi - Ramsey - Higuain, Ronaldo
My prediction:
Juventus will be determined to take advantage of catching Napoli in such a difficult moment, I think the Bianconeri will win 2-0.
Here are the odds for the match at NetBet:
Napoli win - 3.50
Draw - 3.60
Juventus win - 2.10
