Empoli vs Napoli Preview and Lineups – Serie A Round 34

Title-bidding Napoli take a trip to Tuscany to take on bottom-half Empoli in Sunday’s must-win Serie A fixture. Anything other than a victory would land a knock-out blow on Napoli’s hopes of claiming a first Scudetto since the glory days of Diego Maradona. 

The Partenopei were minutes away from sinking Roma in their mouth-watering league encounter in midweek before Stephan El Shaarawy notched up a last-gasp equaliser. A heartbreaking 1-1 draw with the Giallorossi last time out means Napoli head into this clash five points adrift of pacesetters Inter. 

Luciano Spalletti will face an out-of-sorts Empoli side that are in no real danger of suffering relegation. Wandering in the bottom half of the Serie A table, Gli Azzurri are not threatening the top-half picture. Yet, Aurelio Andreazzoli’s men will be keen to get their stuttering league campaign back on track.

Match Preview 

Empoli

Empoli sustained an underwhelming 4-1 defeat away to fellow bottom-half strugglers Udinese last time out, taking their winless Serie A streak to a frustrating 16 matches (D8, L8). Indeed, Andreazzoli’s team are experiencing the longest league run without winning in Europe’s top-five divisions. 

As the only side to have failed to win a single Serie A fixture since mid-December, Empoli will feel obliged to give the home supporters something to shout about. Before a scoreless draw with Spezia in their most recent Serie A outing at Carlo Castellani, Gli Azzurri had scored in nine consecutive home league matches. 

That should be enough to lift the spirits in the home camp. More importantly, Empoli have the overall top-flight H2H home record firmly on their side here. They have only lost one of their eight Serie A meetings with Napoli in Tuscany (W3, D4), while they also ran out 1-0 victors in the reverse fixture in Naples.

Napoli

Napoli have no margin for error if they were to remain in the Scudetto frame following Inter’s comfortable 3-1 home win over Roma on Saturday. Luciano Spalletti’s men have an outstanding away Serie A record to rely on ahead of this trip, having won a league joint-high 37 points on the road this sesaon (W11, D4, L1).

In fact, Napoli are enjoying their best-ever away season in Italy’s elite competition, while they’ve won their last three Serie A games on hostile turf ‘to one.’ Spalletti has turned his side into a water-tight defensive unit this season, with the Partenopei conceding the division’s joint-low 12 goals on the road. 

All competitions included, Napoli are unbeaten in all eight away matches in 2022 (W5, D3) despite failing to record a shutout six times. Topcially, they have conceded 2+ goals in their last four Serie A visits to Empoli, highlighting the potential for a leaky weekend. 

Empoli vs Napoli Team News

Empoli will be without Swiss midfielder Nicolas Haas and centre-backs Riccardo Marchizza and Lorenzo Tonelli, while Federico Di Francesco remains a doubt. 

As for Napoli, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Juan Jesus and Stanislav Lobotka are unavailable through injury. Kalidou Koulibaly serves suspension for accumulated yellow cards, while David Ospina still has a question mark hanging over his head. 

Empoli Potential Starting XI (4-3-1-2): Guglielmo Vicario; Petar Stojanovic, Ardian Ismajli, Simone Romagnoli, Liberato Cacace; Marco Benassi, Kristjan Asllani, Filippo Bandinelli; Liam Henderson; Andrea La Mantia, Andrea Pinamonti.

Napoli Potential Starting XI (4-3-3): Alex Meret; Alessandro Zanoli, Amir Rrahmani, Axel Tuanzebe, Faouzi Ghoulam; Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Fabian Ruiz, Piotr Zielinski; Dries Mertens, Victor Osimhen, Lorenzo Insigne.