Napoli welcome Sampdoria to the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday evening for the second round of Serie A fixtures.
Both sides find themselves in contrasting and unfamiliar positions after day one, with the Blucerchiati topping the league table while Napoli languish at the bottom with no points.
Although the situation demands a great many answers from Napoli, it can’t be said Sampdoria have proven anything either as newly-promoted Carpi weren’t exactly a test. Scoring five times against the Biancorossi may look promising, but Walter Zenga’s side did concede twice, and now face one of the more attacking clubs in Serie A.
For Napoli, the sting felt from the late Sassuolo defeat was only lessened by the failings of their league rivals; namely AC Milan and Juventus. New coach Maurizio Sarri, however, will be disappointed with the way they conceded twice and only lost by one goal.
Simply from a morale perspective, Sampdoria were perhaps in greater need of an opening day win. Having been gifted a place in the qualification rounds of the Uefa Europa League, at the expense of rivals Genoa, a 4-2 defeat on aggregate to FK Vojvodina crushed any hope of a prolonged stay in the competition.
The meetings between these two sides last season had what you’d expect: plenty of goals. Napoli won the home fixture 4-2, while Sampdoria were forced to share the points in a 1-1 draw at Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Napoli have won the majority of recent encounters between these two sides, scoring 12 goals against Sampdoria in the last five meetings, winning three and only drawing the other two. You have to go back to May 2010 to find a Sampdoria victory, Giampaolo Pazzini heading home the only goal of the game early in the second half.
On this occasion, the away supporters will be expecting one of Eder or Luis Muriel to open the scoring; both of whom scored twice against Carpi. Marek Hamsik has the only Napoli goal so far this season, but it can’t be long before Gonzalo Higuain nets again for the Azzurri. The Argentinian scored 29 goals across all competitions last season for Napoli.
The only absentee for both sides is Lorenzo Di Silvestri, who suffered ligament damage on international duty and isn’t expected back until December.
Form Guide Napoli (L) Sampdoria (W-W-L)
Expected Starting XIs:
Sampdoria: Viviano; Cassani, Silvestre, Moisander, Zukanovic; Soriano, Fernando, Barreto; Correa, Muriel, Eder.
Napoli: Reina, Hysaj, Albiol, Chiriches, Ghoulam, Allan, Valdifiori, Hamsik, Insigne, Gabbiadini, Higuain
