Parma Aim to Recover from Poor Run

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There are several fixtures to look forward to in Serie A on Sunday with arguably the most intriguing coming at the Stadio Ennio Tardini as Parma host Napoli.

Parma begin the weekend in 12th place and will be keen to move back into the top half of the table. However, a win would only be good enough to move them up one place.  Napoli are still attempting to catch Juventus at the top of the table but in truth, their main focus will be maintaining second place.

Parma come into this match having lost last time out, going down 2-1 at Cagliari.  That result means Parma have failed to win any of their last four Serie A matches and have picked up only 1 point from the last 12 available.

That point was an exciting comeback at the home of the champions, Juventus to draw 3-3 but due to their other recent results, it has somewhat slipped by the wayside.

Interestingly, trends show Parma have been undefeated at half-time in each of their last twelve home games in Serie A yet have won only one of their last eight at the Stadio Ennio Tardini.  Parma have lost each of their last three home matches and have failed to score a single goal in three of their last four.

Napoli played in the Europa League on Thursday night and recorded a comfortable 2-0 win over FC Zurich to progress to the next round.

Trends show they have been undefeated in each of their last six Serie A matches and have lost just one of their last seventeen.  The defensive side of their game has been strong in recent weeks and Napoli have kept a clean sheet in each of their last four league matches.

Away form shows just one defeat in their last seven in Serie A and Napoli have kept three clean sheets in their last four.  However, the goals have started to dry up a little when on the road in Italy and Napoli have failed to score in each of their last three away Serie A games.

Looking ahead to the team news and Parma have a long list of potential absentees.  Alessandro Bastoni, Leo Stulac, Matteo Scozzarella, Francisco Sierralta and Federico DiMarco have all be struggling with various problems and Alberto Grassi will definitely miss out.  Emanuele Calaio is suspended.

As for Napoli, they will have to make do without suspended winger Lorenzo Insigne plus Mario Rui and Raul Albiol have long term injury problems which will keep them out until March.  Jose Callejon and Arkadiusz Milik will hope to start having been named on the bench in mid-week.

Parma certainly have it in them to make life difficult for Napoli in this match but their home form has been poor.  Napoli have been difficult to break down in recent away games and will be hoping to keep another clean sheet on their way to victory.