NAPOLI

League position: 5th
Head coach: Gennaro Gattuso
Serie A top-scorer: Lorenzo Insigne (13)

RECENT FORM

Roma: W W W L W
Napoli: W W D W W

The Giallorossi bounced back from a surprise defeat at strugglers Parma last Sunday with an impressive victory over Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine this week, securing their spot in the Europa League last-eight.

But that league loss on Matchday 27 opened the door for their upcoming visitors as Roma slipped to sixth, below Napoli on goal difference (although they also are losing on head-to-head record, which comes into play after this second fixture is played).

Having dropped out of both the UEL and Coppa Italia last month, Gattuso’s team have since emerged in fine form in the top-flight.

Victory at AC Milan last time out moved Napoli level on points with their MD28 hosts and the Gli Azzurri have won three of their previous four Serie A matches (W3, D1).

LAST MEETING

DANGER MAN
Lorenzo Insigne

The Napoli captain has 13 league goals to his name already this term, a number bettered by only six players across the entire division.

He’s also found the back of the net three times from his three most recent top-flight appearances and the 29-year-old boasts a very decent recent record against Roma.

Insigne has scored in each of his last two meetings with the Giallorossi and four of his last six, having gone nine games without a goal against Roma prior to that.

Gattuso has a highly dangerous forward line at his disposal and his skipper will set the tone for the likes of the returning Hirving Lozano, Dries Merten, Victor Osimhen, Matteo Politano and Piotr Zielinski to follow.

MATCH STATS

Napoli have won five of the last eight Serie A meetings between these two, including the most recent two, but Roma haven’t lost both league games against Napoli in a single season since 2010-11.

The Giallorossi have also lost just once at home in Serie A in 2020-21 (W10, D3, L1), and only Inter Milan (34) have claimed more points than Roma (33) on home soil.

Remarkably, it's been nearly eight years since the last top-flight Roma-Napoli draw at the Olimpico, which came back in April 2012.

Only Milan (9) have conceded fewer goals than Napoli (10) and Roma (11) in the first half of matches this term.

PLAYER STATS

• Over the course of the previous two top-flight campaigns, Roma have a 58% win-rate with Jordan Veretout on the pitch, compared to 38% without the Frenchman.
  
• Former Napoli midfielder Amadou Diawara made his 50th Roma appearance in Thursday’s win over Shakhtar, while Pau Lopez’s next game will see the Spaniard reach his Serie A half century.
  
• Henrikh Mkhitaryan may have gone eight games without a league assist but his eight provisions this season aren’t bettered by anyone in Serie A.
  
• Matteo Politano scored his first Serie A goal against Roma at the Olimpico with Sassuolo in September 2015 and also found the back of the net in this season’s reverse fixture.

WHAT THEY SAID

“It’s not easy in the league, there are a lot of really good sides. There are seven who are all aiming to finish in the Champions League spots. They are all focusing on the league, whereas we have the Europa League to think about too. But nevertheless we want to fight as hard as we can to finish in the top four.”

- Paulo Fonseca, Roma coach

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