Napoli – Roma

Napoli and Roma will trade goals

Roma secured a very comfortable victory in the Champions League. At the Olimpico, the Wolves hosted Slovan Bratislava and from the opening minutes played as befits the favorite. In the 21st minute, Hermoso’s goal put the Giallorossi ahead. Shortly before halftime, Molina doubled the lead for Gasperini’s side. The same number of goals were scored in the second half, turning the score into a rout. The Wolves’ victory in the previous league round was somewhat more difficult. Without the suspended Malen and with several squad changes, Roma faced Genoa. The Genoese side held their own fairly well and tried to create chances near Gollini’s goal. Perhaps the most dangerous moment came at the Romans’ goal in the 33rd minute, when a long-range shot was denied by the crossbar. At the start of the second half, Castro’s spectacular goal disrupted De Rossi’s plans for the match. The Griffins were unable to mount much of a comeback, and Roma’s second goal completely ruled out that possibility. Tuesday was more entertaining for the Neapolitans. The Azzurri hosted Bodø/Glimt, which meant the match was certain to be interesting. Politano put the Partenopei ahead in the very first minute. By the end of a first half filled with numerous scoring chances, the score was already 2–1. The Norwegians equalized after the break, but McTominay put Napoli ahead again. The final score of 4–3 delighted the home tifosi, but also highlighted many of Allegri’s side’s problems. In the previous league round, the Neapolitans suffered a narrow defeat to Venezia. Despite scoring 16 goals in seven rounds, the Romans are still underperforming their expected goals (xG). This metric indicates that the Wolves should have scored 2.65 more goals. At the same time, xGA shows that the Romans should have conceded five more goals. Napoli are also underperforming in terms of expected goals scored. The metric indicates that the Azzurri have scored five fewer goals than expected. Meetings between these teams tend to be high-scoring. At the Diego Armando Maradona, four of their last five matches ended with goals on the scoreboard. Last season’s match in Naples ended in a 2–2 draw. Clearly, Allegri needs to make amends for the defeat to Venezia. However, the fact that Napoli have kept a clean sheet in only one of their last five matches makes this task more difficult. It is highly likely that the upcoming match will not end goalless.