Udinese face Napoli at the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday evening looking to put further distance between themselves and the Serie A relegation zone.
The visitors have won one of their last four matches and are only two places above the dotted line, while back-to-back draws for Napoli leaves them in sixth.
Match preview
Udinese may have a seven-point margin on the relegation zone, but the bottom four all face off this weekend and that gap could reduce should they taste defeat in Naples.
The Bianconeri held out-of-form Lazio to a goalless draw on home soil on Wednesday evening to put last week's 3-1 loss at the hands of Sampdoria behind them.
Luca Gotti's side have saved their best results for the road since last month's restart, having beaten Roma and bottom side SPAL in their last two away games.
Not since May 2013, when Francesco Guidolin was at the helm, have Udinese won three away games in a row in Serie A.
Napoli are unbeaten in their last seven games at home in all competitions, though, most recently playing out an entertaining 2-2 draw with AC Milan.
© Reuters
They followed up that draw with another stalemate - Musa Barrow scoring late on to snatch Bologna a point in Wednesday's clash after Kostas Manolas had opened the scoring early on.
Milan have closed the gap on sixth-placed Napoli and are now level on points with them, though Gennaro Gattuso's side are already assured of a European spot by virtue of winning the Coppa Italia.
Indeed, that domestic cup success last month ensures that this will go down as a season to remember for Napoli regardless of what happens in their remaining league games.
Gattuso's side will already have one eye on August's rearranged Champions League last-16 second leg against Barcelona, with that one finely poised at 1-1 following the first leg.
Napoli will be eager to regain some momentum before then, and this fixture presents them with a chance to return to winning ways.
The Partenopei have won seven and drawn one of their last eight meetings with Udinese on home soil in a run stretching back to April 2011.
Napoli's Serie A form: WLWWDD
Udinese's Serie A form: LWDWLD
Team News
© Reuters
Giovanni Di Lorenzo picked up a late booking against Bologna and is suspended for this match, so Elseid Hysaj will come in at right-back.
Gattuso has a decision to make up top, where Arkadiusz Milik was preferred to Dries Mertens last time out, while Lorenzo Insigne is also pushing for a recall.
Mertens has been directly involved six goals in his last three games against Udinese, scoring two and setting up four more.
Udinese will have to make do without the suspended Stefano Okaka, opening the door for Lukasz Teodorczyk to make just a second league start of the season alongside Kevin Lasagna.
After failing to score in his first four Serie A appearances against Napoli, Lasagna scored in both games played against the Partenopei in 2019.
Mato Jajalo and Rolando Mandragora are ruled out for the visitors, meanwhile, owing to a sprained knee and ACL tear respectively.
Napoli possible starting lineup:
Meret; Hysaj, Manolas, Koulibaly, Rui; Ruiz, Demme, Zielinski; Politano, Mertens, Insigne
Udinese possible starting lineup:
Musso; Becao, Maio, Nuytinck; Larsen, De Paul, Walace, Fofana, Sema; Teodorczyk, Lasagna
We say: Napoli 2-0 Udinese
Udinese have won back-to-back away matches but are without a victory in this fixture home or away in more than four years. Napoli have scored at least two goals in their last six home games in Serie A - their best run since 2014 - and we can see them getting back on the winning trail this weekend.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Napoli win with a probability of 59.79%. A draw had a probability of 21.6% and a win for Udinese had a probability of 18.66%.
The most likely scoreline for a Napoli win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.22%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10%) and 2-1 (9.95%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (10.17%), while for a Udinese win it was 0-1 (5.2%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 10% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Napoli would win this match.
