Napoli vs Roma

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona sets the stage for a mouth-watering Serie A encounter between Napoli and Roma. 

It’s been a terrible season for Napoli as they unwillingly bid to become the first Serie A champions in history. Last weekend’s embarrassing 1-0 loss at relegation-battling Empoli condemned Francesco Calzona’s side to a fifth winless league outing in their last seven (D3, L2), leaving them three points adrift of the European qualification spots at the start of this round. The impending home return will not inspire much confidence, considering the hosts are winless in their last three Serie A matches at the Maradona Stadium (D2, L1). That’s just a drop in the bucket. Calzona’s underachievers have claimed just 23 of their 49 league points on home turf, where they’ve kept two clean sheets this season (W6, D5, L5). 

Roma didn’t take long to recover from a disastrous 3-1 home defeat to fellow top-four hopefuls Bologna in their last home outing, as Bryan Crystante’s stoppage-time winner inspired them to a 2-1 triumph at Udinese in the continuation of the abandoned game from two weeks ago. One of Jose Mourinho’s last-ditch efforts to salvage his career in Rome saw ‘I Giallorossi’ beat Napoli 2-0 in December’s reverse fixture. It’s now up to his successor, Daniele De Rossi, to finish the job and lead Roma to their first league double over ‘I Partenopei’ since 1997/98. However, the visitors haven’t fared well in Naples, going winless in their last five visits to the Maradona Stadium (D2, L3), with each defeat seeing them concede multiple goals.