Atalanta vs Napoli

Gewiss Stadium is the venue as Atalanta and Napoli go head-to-head in a mouth-watering Serie A encounter.

Atalanta’s hopes of landing a fifth top-four finish in six Serie A seasons and fourth in a row look rather slim despite their 1-0 win away to Bologna on the stroke of the international break. ‘La Dea’ are already eight points off the top-four pace, but with a game in hand, they still have high hopes for securing Champions League football for next season. However, Gian Piero Gasperini’s men have picked up just three victories across their last 12 Serie A outings (D5, L4), averaging a mere 1.2 goals per match in that period. Indeed, scoring has been a problem for Atalanta of late, as they’ve failed to get on the scoresheet in three of their last five Serie A fixtures. Against this backdrop, they’ve netted 3+ goals in their previous three competitive meetings with Napoli (W3).

Desperate to avenge a 3-2 defeat in the reverse fixture, Napoli head into proceedings trailing table-topping AC Milan by only three points. Since going down to ‘I Rossoneri’ in their top-table six-pointer back in early April, ‘I Partenopei’ have racked up back-to-back Serie A victories, including a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Udinese last time out. Luciano Spalletti’s men can draw further confidence from their stellar away form this season, with only Milan (36) picking up more Serie A points than Napoli (34) thus far. Indeed, the Scudetto hopefuls have only lost one of their 15 Serie A travels this term (W10, D4), conceding a league joint-low 11 goals in the process. But they have failed to shut Atalanta out in 19 of their last 21 Serie A H2Hs, so keeping things tight at the back could be a problem.