Napoli will look to seal the Scudetto title this Thursday when they travel to Udine to face Udinese in the 33rd Round of the 2022/23 Serie A season.
With just six games left in Serie A this season, the hosts have nothing to play for except gathering points and acting as party spoilers.
They come into this tie sitting in 13th position, 15 points clear of the relegation zone and 16 behind the European spots. So they can relax and roll over for Napoli.
But they do not appear to be willing to do that even though they were beaten 1-0 by Lecce in their last outing. That defeat was a third straight away league defeat without scoring for the hosts, who should be relieved to return to Dacia Arena, where they are unbeaten in six league outings (W2, D4).
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Any optimism drawn from that run is dampened when they see champions-elect Napoli are next to visit, and that largely owes to the fact that Udinese haven’t beaten the table toppers in any head-to-head meeting since April 2016 (D1, L13).
Meanwhile, Napoli failed to capitalise on Lazio’s loss to Inter Milan last week to seal the Serie A title with a 1-1 draw, with Salernitana extending their wait for the Scudetto a little longer.
The visitors will have the advantage of knowing what will be required of them following Lazio’s game against Sassuolo the previous day, with the potential heading into this game that they may not even need to win to claim the title.
However, regardless of Lazio’s result, they will want to win this game and end 33 years of hurt.
Their fate should be sealed here, considering they’ve won their last eight away league games; a run made all the more remarkable because Luciano Spalletti’s side conceded just once across all eight games.
Napoli haven’t been as watertight in Thursday-held Serie A away games, though, securing just one shut-out from their last six games (W1, D2, L3).
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