Juventus vs. Napoli preview

By: Neil | February 28th, 2009

This should be an interesting game as Napoli has played Juve well this year, winning at home and getting a draw away in the Coppa. Back on giornata 7 at the San Paolo the Partenopei fell behind to a great goal from Amauri, but fought back with goals by Hamsik and Lavezzi to win the game 2-1. And earlier this month Napoli travelled to Juve for a Coppa Italia quarterfinal and put in a very professional performance ending in a 0-0 draw. Juve won the ensuing penalty kick tiebreaker, but Napoli’s performance for 120 minutes showed that the team is capable of causing an upset Saturday. To add a bit of intrigue to the game Juventus is coming off a 1-0 loss to Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday, while Napoli is fully rested.

I don’t have time for a real preview, so I will have to refer you to the Juve offside page and the usual Channel 4 and goal.com previews.

Napoli will be missing Gargano, who injured his foot in a training session. Iezzo still isn’t back yet, and look for Russotto to get a start up front with Lavezzi.

Also, here is a very interesting analysis from Jose Alberti pointing out how the side has been badly constructed by De Laurentiis and Reja. Anyone who believes that only Reja should take the blame for Napoli’s current position needs to read this article.

TV coverage: Fox Soccer Channel, 2:30pm Eastern, 11:30am Pacific

Apologies for the non-preview but I have been swamped with other things the last couple of days.

	Serie A Match Schedule			Discount Travel to Naples
	Napoli Results			Stadio San Paolo information & hotels

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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Comments  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

  
  
  

  read that article earlier and i agree completely with that bloke but i still blame reja for his lack or versatility and the way he cant motivate the players. ive said many times before we didnt need datolo, pazzini would have been perfect hes young and all he needed was a change and some confidence and look at him now scoring goals and nice ones as well. not hoping for a win today but boro beat liverpool so who knows!!! come on napoli!!

  Posted from United States

  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

  
  
  

  we suck absolute balls! whatever happens we need to get rid of contini and blasi but keep santacroce my god hes the only one performing! and navarro is doing well

  Posted from United States

  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 1:22 pm

  
  
  

  well at least reja is safe!

  Posted from United States

  

• alessio |  February 28th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

  
  
  

  Good game thus far, although the last few minutes have been pretty scrappy.

  Posted from Spain

  

• alessio |  February 28th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

  
  
  

  boy, that second half was absolute shit.

  Posted from Spain

  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

  
  
  

  well i have to say we are fucking in the shit now! we will finish around 12th! absolute nightmare season. and as long as reja is in charge i cant support this team they have no creativity at all and i wish lavezzi would fuck off he just runs aimlessly

  Posted from United States

  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm

  
  
  

  and i mean i wont watch them. de laurentiis spend some of that money you make off them shit films!

  Posted from United States

  

• tony |  February 28th, 2009 at 4:06 pm

  
  
  

  alex – you have no idea..you wish lavezzi would fuck off would u?..we would be in relegation without this guy.

  Posted from Australia

  

• Peter |  February 28th, 2009 at 4:30 pm

  
  
  

  Well . . . Navarro’s looking better.

  Posted from United States

  

• alessio |  February 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pm

  
  
  

  at least middlesbrough beat liverpool this weekend eh, alex.

  is navarro the #1 now, or is it because iezzo is injured?

  Posted from Spain

  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

  
  
  

  im being to harsh on lavezzi its just frustrating. its the team that is the problem how can they have been doing so well and now this. hes our best player along with santacroce but he has to score more. the ball is always played to him when hes deep, so he has to take on players constantly.

  navarro looked solid in the game that deflection was brutal. up and on onwards though i just hope we keep santacroce, see more of russotto and de laurentiis sorts us out. when he came i thought he was going to be our laporta next season we will be stronger hopefully

  Posted from United States

  

• alex |  February 28th, 2009 at 4:49 pm

  
  
  

  ive never been so happy watching match of the day

  Posted from United States

  

• Vincent |  February 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

  
  
  

  Please Please, no more Denis uprfront! I am tired of seeing him every freakin’ game and scoring zip!

  We looked better once Reja actually did something and switched to a 442 but Rusotto should have started the game.

  I thought Santacroce was good, as was Navarro. Why was Canna not captaining the side in the 1st half?

  Posted from United States

  

• Neil |  February 28th, 2009 at 7:20 pm

  
  
  

  Montervino is the official captain but since he never plays the duty usually falls to Canna

  Posted from Canada

  

• alex |  March 1st, 2009 at 9:09 am

  
  
  

  why didnt we get pazzini hes on fire! although it seems cassano has inspired him. i would love those two at napoli they have formed one of the best attacks in the league and we have lavezzi and denis who havent scored in how long?! time for marino to go i think. he seems hell bent on just buying stranieri for our attack we need players with serie a experience

  Posted from United States

  

• alex |  March 1st, 2009 at 12:30 pm

  
  
  

  are you watching the barca game neil? whats happened to victor valdes?! and messi is definitely the closest thing to diego we will ever see its unreal how good he is.

  Posted from United States

  

• Vincent |  March 1st, 2009 at 8:28 pm

  
  
  

  Yeah, weren;t Alex and I SCREAMING for Pazzini in January?? Lavezzi would be setting him up like Cassano is at Samp. No, we want overpriced scrub Stranieri up front who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.

  I do think Alex is being a little harsh on Lavezzi though. He can’t help it if he has to piggyback the whole strike force.

  Posted from United States

  

• alessio |  March 2nd, 2009 at 2:26 am

  
  
  

  valdes was always overrated, alex.

  Posted from Spain

  

• alex |  March 2nd, 2009 at 7:28 am

  
  
  

  never rated valdes hes average at best, but sometimes he could make a good save. they definitely need a better keeper. its only because hes catalonian he still gets a sniff. and yes im harsh on lavezzi but that is because the way he was hyped up it was if he was as good as kun aguero and lets face it hes not even close. he carries the team yes, but even when he isnt hes a one trick pony. he never scores, hes always positioned to deep, never plays the right pass and tries to take on 4 payers at once. next game i want to see russotto and him upfront denis is just shit

  Posted from United States

  

• Gigi |  March 2nd, 2009 at 1:22 pm

  
  
  

  have you heard why Reja said he started Montervino..because he knew how to defend Govinco (what a joke) Montervino did not connect on 1 pass…horrible. I have come to the conclusion that we have the talent for now, they are just not in their proper positions…Reja out!

  Posted from United States

  

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