Napoli v Sampdoria
15:00
After defeat at Juve at the end of October, Napoli went unbeaten in 10 in all competitions prior to the winter break, winning three of their last four in the league whilst scoring 16 goals. They’ve moved up 3rd, but they’re still seven points behind Juve, who also have a game in hand on most of the rest of the division. The winter break came at a good time for Sampdoria as they’d picked up just one point from their last three to drop down from 9th to 13th, and Marco Giampaolo will hope his side can move back up towards the top half this year.
Having said that, this looks unlikely to be a fruitful trip for Sampdoria as Napoli have been excellent at the Stadio San Paolo in recent times, winning 22 of their 28 games there since the start of last season. Indeed, if we exclude top-six opposition, Napoli have won 17 of 20 unbeaten home games in that period, leading at the break in 15 of these.
Sampdoria have struggled on the road this term and generally in recent times as they’ve lost 16 of their 28 away games since the start of last season. They’ve trailed at the break in six of their last seven on the road, while they’ve had L/L doubles in four of their last five trips to top-four teams and with that in mind we’re backing Napoli to be ahead at half time and full time.
