Napoli will eager to get back into the win column after suffering their first league defeat of the season, while Sampdoria look to build off their second.
UC Sampdoria
Sampdoria have had a dreadful start to the 2022/23 Serie A campaign. Former club president and majority shareholder Massimo Ferrero has held up the sale of the club. With that off-the-field distraction, which is limited the club’s ability to invest in players, combined with a plethora of injuries, Sampdoria earned only two points through the first eight rounds of the season.
Results improved slightly after Marco Giampaolo was replaced by Dejan Stankovic. Stankovic opened his tenure with a draw to Bologna, then followed up a loss to Roma with victories over Ascoli (in the Coppa Italia) and Cremonese (in Serie A).
Sampdoria fell out of form before the winter break, losing four consecutive losses. The break seemed to help, as Sampdoria opened 2023 with an impressive victory over Sassuolo. Sampdoria will be eager to return home, where they will honour club legend Gianluca Vialli, who sadly passed away on Friday.
SSC Napoli
After going undefeated through the first 15 rounds of the Serie A campaign, Napoli suffered their first league defeat on Wednesday. The Azzurri’s struggles against Inter, particularly at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, continued, with Eden Dzeko heading in the only goal of the match.
The defeat was arguably Napoli’s worst performance of the season. The Partenopei will be eager to redeem themselves with Milan now only five points behind in the table.
Napoli and Luciano Spalletti have historically started well but struggled in the months of December and January. Many wondered how Napoli would come back from an extended break, so the visitors hope to prove that the loss to Inter was a one-off occurrence and not the start of a collapse.
Injuries/Suspensions
Sampdoria will be missing a number of players for this match. Forwards Fabio Quagliarella, Ignacio Pussetto and Manuel De Luca are all out with knee injuries. De Luca has surgery in August to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, while Quagliarella suffered a ligament lesion in his left knee during Sampdoria’s December retreat in Turkey.
Holding midfielder Henry Winks returned to training this week but is not likely to feature. The Englishman, who went under the knife in November to repair an ankle injury, has yet to feature for the Blucerchiati since joining on loan from Tottenham Hotspurs.
Right back Andrea Conti has played only 22 minutes all season due to a knee injury. Meanwhile, Omar Colley didn’t feature against Sassuolo amidst speculation of a potential move to Cagliari, though he was officially ruled out due to the flu. Similarly, Bartosz Bereszynski likely played his last match for Sampdoria this season on Wednesday. The Polish fullback flew to Rome on Friday to complete medicals ahead of a loan swap with Napoli, while Sampdoria would get Alessandro Zanoli in return.
Finally, Bruno Amione will miss the match due to suspension for yellow card accumulation.
Meanwhile, Abdelhamid Sabiri is expected to return to the Sampdoria squad. The Moroccan international returned to Italy Monday after testing positive for COVD-19 after the World Cup. Emil Audero is also expected to be in the squad despite taking a knock to the head late in the Sassuolo match.For Napoli, Gianluca Gaetano returns to the squad after missing the Inter match with a bout of gastroenteritis.
Probable Formations
Manager’s Comments
Dejan Stankovic:
“Napoli is a team that has shown its value since the beginning of the season. They are favourites for the Scudetto and as favourites they come to the Marassi. The performance against Sassuolo was convincing. We were good and focused, but we have to improve from game to game. A great opponent arrives, with a great coach. We respect them, without fear. We play at home, we must honour the shirt and defend our colours. We are ready. There will be man duels. We won many in Reggio Emilia and we have to repeat ourselves.”
Luciano Spalletti:
“There are game systems that are played on the basis of the players’ characteristics and give you difficulty in juxtaposing our 4-3-3 formation as well as the opponents when we have the ball. In the Milan match they gave us space to start the action with our fullbacks but you have to be good at digging the space in their defense. We didn’t do badly, but we were wrong in some things in the construction, though we carved out some important chances in the penalty area. They crowded the area a lot and it wasn’t easy to find space. We will need to improve these qualities in the next few matches even if we don’t have an easy match ahead, beyond the formation. Sampdoria had a good match after a difficult period. We will find a particular environment for this new-found euphoria.”
Previous Meetings
| January 9, 2022 | SSC Napoli | 1-0 | UC Sampdoria |
| September 23, 2021 | UC Sampdoria | 0-4 | SSC Napoli |
| April 11, 2021 | UC Sampdoria | 0-2 | SSC Napoli |
| December 13, 2020 | SSC Napoli | 2-1 | UC Sampdoria |
| February 3, 2020 | SSC Napoli | 2-4 | UC Sampdoria |
Match Officials
Head Official: Rosario Abisso
Assistants: Filippo Bercigli and Dario Cecconi
Fourth Official: Livio Marinelli
VAR: Paolo Valeri and Federico Longo
