Monza vs Napoli

Serie A runners-up Napoli head to Stadio Brianteo to take on dead-last Monza in a must-win league fixture.

Monza’s three-year Serie A stay approaches its inevitable end after a 1-0 defeat to Venezia in last weekend’s ‘relegation six-pointer’ left them 11 points adrift of safety. Nailed to the bottom of the table, Alessandro Nesta’s charges head into proceedings amid a dreadful run of ten defeats from their last 12 league outings (D2) and can hardly expect to turn the corner against title-bidding Napoli. That said, ‘I Biancorossi’ have gone unbeaten in half of their six home matches against current top-eight teams this season (W1, D2, L3). Furthermore, they’ve only won once in home league action since the start of April 2023 (D6, L13), including a 4-2 defeat to upcoming rivals Napoli in this corresponding fixture last term. On top of that, they lost 2-0 at the Maradona Stadium in September.

That win forms part of Napoli’s three-match unbeaten H2H streak (W2, D1), setting the title hopefuls up nicely for this trip. Antonio Conte’s side thumped Empoli 3-0 at home earlier this week to restore a three-point deficit to pacesetters Inter Milan, maintaining a trend of alternating between winning (3) and drawing (3) across their last three league outings. This game is a perfect opportunity for ‘I Partenopei’ to find consistency, considering they’ve kept seven clean sheets in eight league encounters against current bottom-six sides this season. However, there’s a note for caution, with the visitors failing to win any of their last five Serie A matches on the road (D4, L1), netting under 1.5 goals on four occasions.