The battle for dominance. Napoli vs Juventus
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The encounter between these two Italian giant clubs on the 1st day of the last month in the year 2017 will certainly be nothing less than a mouthwatering clash, the two sides have always stood neck to neck in the scudetto race in the past few seasons.
Juventus without hesitation have dominated the Serie A for the past six seasons, claiming the scudetto prize on those six occasions. It seems that Juventus will finally lose their grip as the dominating club in Italy when they path ways with exceptional players such as Tevez, Arturo Vidal and Paul Pogba in succession.
However, they’ve always find a way to keep the team’s level and they’ve never stopped performing at a high level even in the UEFA Champions League, reaching the final on two occasions in the last four seasons, though they were pipped to the trophy on those two occasions by Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.
There are several teams in Italy who could challenge the dominance of Juventus, teams like; Roma, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Lazio and many more, But only Napoli has shown the potency strong enough to push Juve aside. Will they eventually be successful? No one knows and time will certainly tell, even though there are high expectations this season.
Napoli are not just presently a strong team, they are certainly an exciting side to watch, Pep Guardiola considered them to be probably the best team he has ever faced and heaped praises on their manager, Maurizio Sarri, who has done excellently well so far. Pep and Sarri both share the same philosophy about football, and they are admired for their teams attacking prowess.
Both Juventus and Napoli have lost 1 of their last 6 matches in all competition. And of course, Napoli lost to a highflying Manchester city who are presently considered to be the best team in Europe ahead of Barcelona, PSG and Real Madrid. While Juventus lost 2-3 at home against a 6th placed Sampdoria in the league.
Napoli are unbeaten in their last 26 league games, 14 of which are in this present campaign.
Juventus even in their not so good form are the team with the highest number of goals scored in the league, 40. 12 of which are from Paolo Dybala and 8 from Higuaín who is presently recovering from a hand surgery. Even though the doctors did not specify the date of his return, Higuaín who sat out of Juve’s victory over Crotone will obviously recover in time to feature against his former side.
- Napoli alongside Roma have conceded the fewest number of goals, 9 in the ongoing league campaign.
- The clash between these two sides have always been a fierce one, and Juve might have clinched the scudetto for the past 6 consecutive seasons, they’ve only managed to claim 1 victory in their last 13 visits to Stadio San Paolo (D4, L8)
- Juventus lies in 3rd position, 4 points adrift of 1st placed Napoli and will be without the experiences of Gorgio Chiellini at the back, for this clash, and that could be a telling point.
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