SSC Napoli

In the second episode of the week, Nigel of AtalantaBC_News joins Joe Fischetti to preview Napoli’s match on Saturday against Atalanta, including:Part 1 - Atalanta’s season thus far, including:  Top 4 aspirations, the latest on Juventus’ appeal and how that could affect Atalanta, Lookman and Hojlund as the new Muriel and Zapata and Atalanta’s struggles at the Gewiss (~0:51)Part 2 - Injury updates, predicted starting XI’s and match prediction (~17:56)

Napoli will be eager to get back into the win column after suffering only their second league defeat of the season. Meanwhile, Atalanta hope for a positive result to avoid falling too far behind in the race for Champions League qualification.SSC NapoliIncluding their Matchday 25 defeat to Lazio, Napoli have lost four matches in all competitions this season. All four times the Partenopei responded with a victory. One of those victories was against Atalanta, which came after Napoli's loss to Liverpool in the Group Stage of the Champions League.Once again, Luciano Spalletti has worked hard to keep his players focused on…

On Friday, Lega Serie A announced that SSC Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was voted the EA Sports Player of the Month for February. Kvaratskhelia will be presented with the trophy prior to Napoli’s match against Atalanta at the Stadio Maradona on Saturday. The Georgian received the most votes by fans in a poll that included Federico Baschirotto (Lecce), Angel Di Maria (Juventus), Aleksej Miranchuk (Torino) and teammate Victor Osimhen (Napoli). The five best players of the month were selected taking into account the advanced analysis of Stats Perform, created from the tracking data recorded with their Hawk-Eye system. It’s the…

On Thursday, La Albiceleste announced via their official social media channels that Giovanni Simeone has been called to the squad for Argentina’s friendlies in March. El Cholito will be in Lionel Scalloni’s squad for Argentina’s matches against Panama and Curaçao on March 23rd and March 28th, respectively. Simeone has five caps with La Albiceleste and scored a goal in Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Guatemala in September of 2018. His last cap was in November of 2018, where he played 15 minutes off the bench in a friendly against Mexico.

Only two days after being named the Foreign Athlete of the Year by the Foreign Press Association of Italy, Victor Osimhen has been named the February Player of the Month by the Associazione Italiana Calciatori (AIC or Italian Footballers Association). Osimhen scored five league goals in five matches, to go along with a goal in the first leg of Napoli's Champions League Round of 16 tie against Eintracht Frankfurt. Osimhen was selected over Juventus' Angel Di Maria, Bologna's Riccardo Orsolini and AC Milan's Malick Thiaw. The accolades have been piling up for Nigerian this season, having already won the Lega…

Napoli continued preparations on Wednesday ahead of their match against Atalanta this upcoming weekend. According to the club's official training report, Hirving Lozano did differentiated work due to a resentment. The club has not commented on the severity of the injury, leaving the Mexican's availability for the Atalanta match in doubt. Meanwhile, Giacomo Raspadori, who continues to recover from a thigh strain, did personalized training on the pitch. Victor Osimhen did not participate in training with permission from the club.

On Tuesday, Lega Serie A issued Official Communication No. 162 for the 25th round of matches of the 2022/23 Serie A campaign contested between the 3rd and 6th of March. These are the words of Sports Judge Gerardo Mastandrea, assisted by Stefania Ginesio and by representative of the AIA Carlo Moretti: Fine of €15,000 to Lazio for its supporters, during the match and at the end of the match, throwing two flares and a plastic bottle into the sectors occupied by the opposing fans; also for its supporters, during the competition, throwing five flares onto the pitch level; and finally,…

In the first episode of the week, Gianluca joins Joe Fischetti to review Napoli’s second loss of the season, including: Maurizio Sarri using Inzaghi-ball to beat Luciano Spalletti’s Sarri-ball (~1:35) Did Napoli underutilize their wings? (~4:40) Should Patric have been sent off? (~7:18) Napoli lacking a player to take direct free kicks (~12:56) A blueprint on how to beat Napoli (~17:14) Kvara’s turnover and Vecino’s brilliant goal (~21:44) Man of the Match (~23:50) Traveling Lazio fans bringing paper bombs into the Maradona (~26:55) Osimhen working so hard to play in the English Premier League (~30:37)

On Monday, Victor Osimhen was awarded the Foreign Athlete of the Year award by the Foreign Press Association of Italy.  After accepting the award; Osimhen unintentionally stirred up some controversy when he was asked about playing in the English Premier League in the future. Many media outlets and social media channels took the quote out of context by only publishing a portion of the response.  Here is the full question posed by Reuters and the full response from Osimhen. Question: you have played already in three of the five major leagues. Do you have ambitions to play in Spain or…

Napoli’s suffered their first league defeat at the Maradona, as Maurizio Sarri’s pragmatic approach paid off. Here are three takeaways selected by Forza Napoli Press.Changing TacticsMaurizio Sarri had a game-plan and his team executed it to perfection. Ironically, Lazio did not use Sarri-ball to defeat Luciano Spalletti’s Sarri-ball 2.0. Lazio’s tactics were more akin to those of Simone Inzaghi and Massimiliano Allegri.Lazio defended with 11 men behind the ball, often all in the Lazio half. Recognizing Napoli’s strengths, Lazio crowded the middle of the park and took away the passing lanes. The Partenopei responded by playing the long ball over…