Napoli will play their first game of the 2022/23 Serie A season this Monday when they travel to Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi to take on Verona.
Venue: Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi (Verona)
Key Statistics
Verona have only collected more Serie A wins against Cagliari and Fiorentina (14) than their 13 against Napoli.
The hosts are winless in their last three home league games (D1, L2).
They have won just one of their last five head-to-head meetings with Napoli.
The visitors won their last three Serie A games without conceding a goal.
Napoli kept nine clean sheets away from home last season–the most in the league.
Verona’s 15 SA goals in the opening 15 minutes was a league-high last season.
Head to head
Napoli have won the last ten meetings between both sides in all competitions, with Verona recording one win in those games.
Latest performances in all competitions
Verona: L-W-L-W-D
Napoli: D-W-D-D-W
Hellas Verona
It has been a summer of change at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi where Gabriele Cioffi has been brought in as the replacement for the departed Igor Tudor, who has since taken the reins at French club Marseille.
The former coach took Verona to one of their most successful seasons in recent times as they finished in ninth place after recording 14 wins, eleven draws and 13 losses last season.
It was the third-successive top-half Serie A for them and so they come into this season looking to make the next step which will be to challenge for a place in Europe. They have moved to strengthen their chances of doing so by bringing in new players to the tune of a €20m+ outlay.
New manager Gabriele Cioffi will be keen to see his new recruits hit the ground running in a bid to end the three-match winless home run they finished last season with (D1, L2).
Possible Verona starting line-up
Lorenzo Montipo; Pawel Dawidowicz, Koray Gunter, Diego Coppola; Marco Davide Faraoni, Adrien Tameze, Ivan Ilic, Martin Hongla, Darko Lazovic; Kevin Lasagna, Giovanni Simeone.
Injured: Federico Ceccherini
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Napoli
After the disappointing end to their last season, Napoli will look to hit the ground running this year by picking up a win in their first league game.
The Naples’ club were leading the Serie A table for much of last season. But a drop-off in form toward the end of the season brought them crashing down to earth and they could only finish in third place, a distant seven points behind eventual winners AC Milan.
They will come into this new season looking to mount another title charge. However, having lost their legendary defender Kalidou Koulibaly this summer to Chelsea, it appears to be seen how they hope to maintain their back line which conceded the second least number of goals last season.
Although they have spent huge money in acquiring the services of South Korean defender Kim Min-jae, they can only hope the former Fenerbahçe will be able to hit the ground very early.
However, four wins from their last four league games and an unbeaten run in their pre-season games will have given them confidence that they are ready for the season.
Possible Napoli starting line-up
Alex Meret; Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Amir Rrahmani, Kim Min-jae, Mario Rui; Andre Zambo Anguissa, Stanislav Lobotka, Piotr Zielinski; Hirving Lozano, Kvaratskhelia, Victor Osimhen.
Injured: Karim Zedadka, Gianluca Gaetano
Doubtful: Matteo Politano
Suspended: None
Prediction
Verona 0-2 Napoli
