Juventus vs Napoli

Juventus return home to the Stadio Olimpico di Torino looking to repeat their strong showing of a week ago when they won on the road. Napoli are at the other end of the spectrum having blown 3 points at home in their last match and they now find themselves closer to the relegation zone that they are to UEFA Champions League slot.

The vecchia signora scored a 0-2 victory away to Genoa in their week 27 match at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris at Marassi. This leaves them in 3^rd place of the Serie A table with 51 points for the season. They sit 7 points back of 2^nd place AS Roma and 4 points up on 4^th place Fiorentina. It was a great way for Juve to rebound after having lost a tough match at home to Fiorentina and they snapped a 3 match winless run at the same time. This week manager Claudio Ranieri will be missing Andrade, Marchionni and Zanetti. In addition to these three Zebina, Legrottaglie and Camoranesi will be out suspended. These suspensions will open up spots for Grygera, Molinaro, and Salihamidzic while Nedved will start on the left side of midfield. Striker David Trezeguet is currently tied atop the league scoring table with 16 goals along with Borriello of Genoa.

Napoli were playing their second consecutive home match last week but they were unable to hold serve as they were beaten by Roma, 0-2 at the Stadio San Paolo. Napoli had gone into the contest on a high note after having become the first team this season to beat Inter Milan 7 days earlier. The loss leaves the partenopei in 12^th place of Serie A with 33 points leaving them just behind 11^th place Lazio and 2 points ahead of 13^th place Torino. Even worse than the loss however is the fact that Napoli lost Marcelo Zalayeta, their top scorer, for the rest of the season with a ligament tear. This week Zalayeta is joined by Cupi and Iezzo on the injured list while Mannini and Blasi are out suspended. Zalayeta’s spot in the starting eleven is going to be taken by Calaio who will start alongside Lavezzi.

Juventus have not been perfect at home this season as they have managed to draw 4 matches while losing 2 and at times have been guilty of failing to have a killer instinct to finish off matches. Meanwhile, Napoli have been extremely poor on the road with just 2 wins to go with 3 draws and 8 losses. Their inconsistency on the road will be their downfall in the end.

Prediction: Juventus (2-1)