The new Serie A round kicks off with a mouth-watering match-up on Friday as Napoli and Juventus go head to head in a top-of-the-table clash.
This could be a very feisty affair with plenty of bookings and bookmaker William Hill is offering enhanced odds at 5.50 for both teams to get over 2 cards.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: January 12th, 8:30 A.M. (EST)
Juve enter the big match in great form having won eight league fixtures in a row for the first time in 2018. All of the wins have also come with a clean sheet, and it’s going to be almost like a defense versus offense match-up on Friday as Napoli boast the league’s best attacking record with 39 goals scored.
Massimiliano Allegri’s team has the tightest defense with Juventus having incredibly given up just seven goals in 17 games. There have been 12 clean sheets in total for the team this season and Cagliari in 1966-67 was previously the only side to get as many clean sheets in their first 17 games of a Serie A season.
Allegri was heavily criticized at the start of the campaign for the team’s poor performance, but he stuck to his philosophy and is now reaping the rewards. If he can mastermind another victory on Friday, the Old Lady would be just four points adrift from Napoli.
Napoli were also recently on a fantastic run, recording 11 straight victories before taking their first loss of the season against Inter Milan. It was a poor effort from the team at San Siro, but last weekend’s 2-0 away win over Sampdoria was a solid bounce-back performance and Luciano Spalletti will be hoping that his troops can gain further momentum on Friday.
Will it be Victor Osimhen’s night again? He has just become the second African player to score 10-plus goals in three different Serie A seasons, joining the legendary George Weah. The Nigerian forward enters Friday’s action with a run of eight goals in eight league games and would definitely love to show that he can also do the business against Juventus’ airtight defense.
Napoli will be out to record a fourth consecutive home win in the match-up. Juventus used to dominate the meetings, but the tide turned back in 2020 and last season was the first since the 2010-11 campaign in which Juve didn’t win either of the two league fixtures. They will badly want to get back to winning ways but beating Napoli at their place is a very tough task – Spalletti’s men haven’t lost any of their last 11 games at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
