Sampdoria vs Napoli

Sampdoria are home to take on Napoli in their week 22 match at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris at Marassi. The blucerchiati will be looking to bounce back from a loss away from home last week while Napoli will be trying to build off of their impressive win against Udinese. The injury bug has hit Napoli this week as they are expected to miss up to 6 starting players.

Samp are currently in 8^th place of the Serie A table with 28 points. They sit 1 point back of 7^th place Atalanta and just ahead of 9^th place Palermo. They were away to SS Lazio last week at the Stadio Olimpico and fell by a score of 2-1. Despite the loss, Sampdoria have still been playing better overall football lately as evidenced by the fact that they had conceded just 2 goals over their prior 4 games. Now they return home where they have lost just once this season in 10 matches with 6 wins and 3 draws. The list of injured players remains the same with Montella, Sammarco and Volpi still out. Manager Mazzarri is set to go with a 3-5-2 featuring the club’s leading goal scorer Bellucci, with 9 goals, starting alongside Antonio Cassano.

Napoli picked up a big victory at home last week when they held serve over Udinese by a score of 3-1 at the Stadio San Paolo. The win snapped a 4 match winless run for Reja’s side which saw them pick up just 2 points over that stretch. With the win over Udinese the partenopei are now in 11^th place of the league table with 27 points. They are 1 point behind 10^th place Genoa and 4 points ahead of 12^th place Catania. This week Napoli will be at quiet a disadvantage given that 6 starting players will be out of action due to injury and suspension. The players out injured are Domizzi, Garcis, Iezzo, Savini and Cupi while Cannavaro is out suspended. This will force Reja to go with a completely revised 3 man back line of Grava, Contini and Santacroce. As if the injury situation were not bad enough, Napoli have managed just 1 win away from home this season.

Given how depleted Napoli will be in this match the edge goes to Sampdoria in this contest. When you factor in that Napoli have won just one match away from home all season in 10 tries, Sampdoria are an even bigger favorite.

Prediction: Sampdoria (2-1)