The weekend’s action in Serie A finishes on Sunday with a very intriguing battle as AS Roma host table-topping Napoli who have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the season. Can Jose Mourinho’s men ruin the run?
Mourinho will likely try to shut the shop and keep the scoring at a minimum. These teams have played out three consecutive games with under 2.5 goals and bookmaker 10bet has the odds at 2.00 for the trend to continue on Sunday.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 22nd, 7:30 A.M. (EST)
Napoli have been very impressive so far in the league and in Europe as well winning all four of their Champions League games and scoring 17 goals in the process. They have a record of eight wins and two draws in the league with 25 goals scored and Mourinho definitely has to bring his A-game to get something out of the match.
13 different players have already scored for Napoli in the league and it’s been a great all-around effort, but the team surely wouldn’t be flying as high as they do without the outstanding play of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
The 21-year-old Georgian sensation has produced five goals and five assists in 10 Serie A outings and boasts seven goals and eight assists in 14 appearances across all competitions. His trickery creates all kinds of problems for opposing defenses and Kvaratskhelia has also proven himself as a good finisher.
Napoli have won six games in a row in the league and Kvaratskhelia hasn’t been involved in any goals in just one of the matches during the run. Stopping him will take a big performance from Roma’s defense.
Mourinho’s team is on a decent run as well with four wins from the last five league outings. The Giallorossi have found some much-needed consistency after a shaky start and it’s helped them move all the way up to fourth in the table. There’s only a four-point gap with Napoli meaning Roma will be right near the top of the table if they win on Sunday.
However, to get the three points, Roma have to overcome the absence of Paolo Dybala. The star forward had just heated up with a five-game goal streak across all competitions before suffering a hamstring injury. Roma managed to beat Sampdoria last week without Dybala but snuck a 1-0 win only via a penalty and a meeting with Napoli is clearly a much tougher challenge.
The two teams played out a pair of draws during Mourinho’s debut campaign in Rome last season and this means that Roma boast only one victory from the last eight head-to-head clashes. It’s going to be very difficult to improve the record on Sunday, but if anyone can think of a game plan to cool down Napoli, it should be the Special One himself.
