Rafael Benitez’s Napoli welcome Serie A strugglers Atalanta to the Stadio San Paolo as the two sides are set to meet on Sunday evening.
The Partenopei have been somewhat underwhelming so far this season, despite this, they find themselves in fourth place, just three points behind Lazio in the third and final Champions League spot. Benitez’s side will have had very little preparation for the match, following Thursday’s away trip to Russia to face Dinamo Moscow in their Europa League quarter-final second leg clash which finished scoreless and saw the Neapolitan team progress with a 3-1 aggregate win.
The Nerazzurri have been fighting against relegation for quite some time now, and it appears that the club and supporters are really starting to worry as they recently sacked long-serving coach Stefano Colantuono to replace him with veteran coach Edy Reja. Unfortunately for the Bergamo based outfit, this change in manager has not immediately resulted in a change of fortunes on the field, as they are yet to record a win under their new boss, but have secured two points from his first two games at the helm.
Sunday’s hosts have also been struggling domestically of late and are without a win in their last three Serie A matches, falling to defeat against Hellas Verona and Torino, while only being able to share the spoils with Inter as Benitez’s men let a two goal lead slip late on against his former side.
Recent fixtures between the two sides have thrown up some pretty interesting results and Napoli have failed to win in either of their last two encounters, with the Orobici claiming a 3-0 victory in the second half of last season, and the two sides could not be separated and drew 1-1 when they met earlier this campaign, despite Atalanta finishing the game with ten men.
Benitez will be without a few members of his squad for the weekend’s match as Michu, Walter Gargano and Kalidou Koulibaly are all ruled out through injury, while Raul Albiol and Faouzi Ghoulam are suspended.
Reja will also be without some of his players as Marcelo Estigarribia and Cristian Raimondi are injured and Carlos Carmona is sidelined through suspension following his dismissal in the Nerazzurri’s stalemate against Udinese last weekend.
Form Guide: Napoli (W-L-W-L-D-L) Atalanta (L-L-L-L-D-D)
Expected Starting XIs
Napoli: Andujar; Maggio, Henrique, Britos, Strinic; Inler, David Lopez; Callejon, Hamsik, Mertens; Higuain.
Atalanta: Sportiello; Masiello, Biava, Stendardo, Drame; Migliaccio, Cigarini; Zappacosta, Moralez, Gomez; Denis.
