Seeking to bounce back from their first domestic defeat of the season, Scudetto hopefuls Napoli travel to the Luigi Ferraris Stadium to face relegation-battlers Sampdoria on Sunday evening.
The pursuit of a first Serie A title since 1989/90 will continue for Napoli when they travel to Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris to face a struggling Sampdoria. The Scudetto favourites will look to stretch their lead at the top of the Serie A standings, with Luciano Spalletti’s side desperate not to let their healthy advantage slip out of their grasp.
The Partenopei have been largely untroubled this season and made a blistering start to the campaign. But they suffered their first Serie A defeat of the season after 16 games at the hands of Inter Milan, with Edin Dzeko scoring the game’s only goal at San Siro.
Napoli looked an unstoppable force when Serie A broke for the World Cup break, with Luciano Spalletti’s men cruising to 11 successive victories while scoring 27 times to build an eight-point lead at the top. However, Wednesday’s defeat has seen their lead at the Serie A summit cut short to just five points, with defending champions AC Milan hot on their heels.
Having blown the title race wide open, the Partenopei will aim to resume normal service. And a matchup against relegation-zoned Sampdoria may be just what the doctor ordered.
After four losses in a row, Sampdoria finally notched a win in the last round, beating Sassuolo 2-1 courtesy of first-half strikes from Manolo Gabbiadini and Tommaso Augello. They now have nine points from sixteen games, which still leaves them in the relegation zone. The hosts look to be in deep trouble, and relegation remains likely for the Genovese club, who are a good five points adrift of safety.
The corresponding fixture last season ended with Napoli running away with a comprehensive 4-0 victory thanks to a brace from Victor Osimhen and a goal apiece from Fabian Ruiz and Piotr Zelinski. Here at The Hard Tackle, we will run the rule over these two sides ahead of their latest meeting at the Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris this weekend.
Tactics & Team News
Sampdoria
Official, completed. Poland right back Bartosz Bereszynski just signed as new Napoli player from Sampdoria. 🔵🤝🏻 #Napoli
🇲🇦 Napoli’s next top target is Morocco star Azzedine Ounahi — €15m opening bid submitted, Napoli would sign him now for season 2023/24. Talks on. pic.twitter.com/W8btsI4dar
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 7, 2023
Sampdoria boss Dejan Stankovic will have to make do without the services of a number of key players, with Andrea Conti (tendon), Harry Winks (ankle), Ignacio Pussetto (knee), Manuel De Luca (meniscal), and Fabio Quagliarella (knee) all sidelined and nursing respective injuries.
As if the task of facing Napoli was not stern enough, the Partenopei have snapped up their key defender Bartosz Bereszynski on loan with an option-to-buy.
Stankovic likes to play with a 3-4-2-1, and that is unlikely to change this weekend, even though Napoli prefer a four-man backline. That is also because he will also be without 21-year-old defender Bruno Amione (on loan from Hellas Verona), who will sit out due to accumulation of yellow cards.
Omar Colley missed the encounter against Sassuolo due to sickness but should be fine to start here alongside Jeison Murillo and Bram Nuytinck in the central defensive rearguard, with Emil Audero taking his usual starting place in between the sticks.
In the engine room, Tomas Rincon will keep his place in the double pivot alongside Ronaldo Vieira, flanked by the two reserved wing-backs, Mehdi Leris and Tommaso Augello.
Moroccan creative midfielder Abdelhamid Sabiri is still recovering from an injury that he picked up at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Filip Djuricic is poised to return to offensive midfield slot after serving his one-match ban on Wednesday.
Up front, Manolo Gabbiadini should lead the line, with support from loanee Sam Lammers, who has arrived in the January transfer window in an intriguing exchange deal that saw 35-year-old Francesco Caputo heading back to 13th-placed Serie A side Empoli.
Probable Lineup (3-4-1-2): Audero; Murillo, Colley, Nuytinck; Leris, Rincon, Villar, Augello; Djuricic; Montevego, Gabbiadini
Napoli
Unlike his counterpart in the Sampdoria dugout, Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti has no fresh injury concern to deal with. Salvatore Sirigu and Diego Demme are long-term absences, while Gianluca Gaetano, who suffered an injury against Lille in a friendly encounter, should be another player unavailable for the visitors.
Spalletti will mostly field the same lineup that faced Inter. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been Napoli’s major driving force this season. He had some minor injury issues but was in the starting lineup against Inter. And while he is fully fit, he is unlikely to be risked here with a trip to Juventus on the horizon.
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Stanislav Lobotka, and Piotr Zielinski will make up the visitors’ midfield as they try to dominate possession at the centre of the park and engineer a plethora of scoring opportunities. Victor Osimhen is more than likely to spearhead the Napoli attack, alongside Matteo Politano and Elif Elmas. Giacomo Raspadori and Giovanni Simeone are also pushing for starts but will have to contend with bench roles.
Concentrazione in vista di Domenica 🔜
💙 #ForzaNapoliSempre pic.twitter.com/Nmnl1bIJPY
— Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) January 6, 2023
There should not be any changes elsewhere in the defensive unit either, with Kim Min-jae and Juan Jesus continuing their partnership at the heart of Napoli’s defence. Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Mathias Olivera will be occupying the full-back slots, though they are going to play a key role in the offensive game as well. There is also no looking past Alex Meret in goal for the visitors.
As alluded to above, Napoli have bolstered their squad with the winter addition of former Sampdoria defender Bereszynski, a day before the sides face off at Stadio Luigi Ferraris. The Polish full-back will provide competition for skipper Di Lorenzo on the right side of defence for Napoli, while they are also trying to sign World Cup breakout star and Barcelona target Azzedine Ounahi.
Probable Lineup (4-3-3): Meret; Di Lorenzo, Kim, Jesus, Olivera; Anguissa, Lobotka, Zielinski; Politano, Osimhen, Elmas
Key Stats
- Napoli have won their last seven Serie A meetings against Sampdoria across all competitions and have kept a clean sheet in five of them.
- Sampdoria have lost their last five Serie A matches on home turf; they have never lost six home league games in a row.
- Napoli tasted their first defeat of the Serie A season against Inter Milan last time out, having won each of their previous 11 games.
- The hosts, meanwhile, have lost four of their last five league matches, though they defeated Sassuolo on Wednesday.
- The visitors have won six of their eight away league games this campaign, scoring 16 goals, while Sampdoria have failed to score in four of their last five games.
Player to Watch
Piotr Zielinski
Piotr Zielinski is an extraordinary player and one of the best goal-scoring midfielders in Europe. It is little wonder, therefore, that Zielinski has also become a pillar of Luciano Spalletti’s juggernaut. His main task is to pull the strings in the Napoli midfield and set up chances for Victor Osimhen and co.
He is the nerve centre of the team, dictating play and using his outstanding football IQ to read the game and feed his teammates with clever passes and flicks. Zielinski quite certainly knows where the back of the net is, having scored six goals across Serie A and the UEFA Champions League this season.
While he looked a tad rusty in his first game after the World Cup, his creativity would be vital to carve open the opponent’s deep block. So we back him to shine against one of the league’s worst defences.
Prediction
Sampdoria 1-3 Napoli
Sampdoria were in miserable form prior to the World Cup hiatus, struggling to put together a coherent performance. Although they surprised Sassuolo on the road to register just their second win of the Serie A season, they still have fatal flaws in their defensive game. They have the joint-second worst defensive record in the division, conceding 28 goals, and are the league’s lowest scorers with eight goals.
Therefore, it appears unlikely that Dejan Stankovic’s men will be able to stop a Napoli side desperate to get back to winning ways. A comfortable Napoli victory is expected on Sunday even without the presence of magic man Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, with the current Serie A leaders set to have plenty of joy in front of goal against the relegation-threatened Sampdoria.
The Blucerchiati will be hoping to step up in front of their own fans as they pay tribute to the club legend Gianluca Vialli, who sadly passed away on Friday. But we cannot foresee Sampdoria getting anything out of the game against Napoli.
