Fresh from the clamorous elimination in the Coppa Italia at the hands of Atalanta, Napoli must immediately regain victory at the Bentegodi against Verona. The winter champions (in 85 Serie A championships, on 58 occasions, the leaders at the halfway point were then champions of Italy at the end of the tournament, equal to 68,2% of the cases, a percentage that rises to 69,57% from when there are three points) are not going through a particularly brilliant period, as also confirmed by last week's painful victory in Crotone, despite Marek Hamsik's third consecutive goal. Sarri would need some tweaks on the market, but De Laurentiis will hardly satisfy his coach.
Juventus will try to take advantage of it which, unlike the Neapolitans, is improving in terms of condition and is in full swing on all fronts, after having also won the semi-final of the Italian Cup against Turin.
The bianconeri are on stage in Cagliari, a historically difficult field and Allegri, formerly on duty, warns his team: “It's not easy to play there, but we have to win. It takes a careful and serious match. I remember Carpi, the matches in Doha, when the winter break arrives you risk getting into trouble”. Who knows if he really thinks so, as he can count on a solid group that is unlikely to get the wrong approach to the races. Above all, however, Juventus is a team used to looking far, and in the head of the Juventus coach (confirmed by Marotta, who said of him "He still has two years on his contract, but he will stay with us for a long time") there are already numbers to aim for the seventh consecutive Scudetto: “We multiply Napoli's 48 points by two, that's 96. We are missing two points with Atalanta and one with Lazio, but mistakes can happen, like our bad match with Sampdoria . We had a good first leg, we are in the cups, the goal of being in the running for everything in March has been achieved”.
Dybala confirmed as starter alongside Higuain and Mandzukic against Cagliari. The attacker seems to have found the right mood after a period of tarnishing, and is ready to restart from the brace he scored last week against Verona: "Paulo is a man with 15 goals in the league – said Allegri -, then there are seasons in which he can go up to 20, but he can't be a centre-forward in a big team. He could be in teams where he is 50 meters from the goal, not 20 like us. He gives his best when he has space to start from further away ”.
On the other hand, the one who will not be the protagonist of the championship day is Nainggolan, punished by Roma and Di Francesco after the video posted on New Year's Eve, when, between cigarettes, cocktails and profanity, he definitely crossed the line. The player apologized, but apparently that wasn't enough: "The guideline dictated by the club – explained the coach in the conference -, shared by me and accepted by Radja, is this: whoever represents Roma will not be called up must have a certain way of doing, there are things that are unacceptable and will no longer be accepted. Whoever makes a mistake will pay the same way. A similar situation has never happened to me, Nainggolan knows what he did, moreover he made the video himself, but he took his responsibilities ”.
Roma, fresh from the home draw against Sassuolo, will have to deal with Gasperini's very fast Atalanta, protagonist this week with the victory over Napoli in the Italian Cup at the San Paolo: "This is the worst period since I've been here for the results, maybe he let go of something from an emotional point of view, we are missing in some details where we weren't wrong before. We don't have to throw everything away, but we also don't have to settle for it. We couldn't find a worse team now, we have to unite and be determined. They have great enthusiasm, but why not us that with a game of recovery we could be 6 points from the top?”.
