On Dec. 7, 2025, Luciano Spalletti headed again to the stadium wherein he led Napoli to one in all their greatest triumphs in membership historical past. It was simply the largest fixture Spalletti was an element throughout his then-brief tenure as Juve supervisor, with the matchup between the defending champions and their former coach simply half — albeit a big one — of the various narratives heading into the showdown in southern Italy.
Forty-nine days later, Juventus and Napoli meet once more.
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This time round, it’s on Juve’s house turf. And it comes at a time wherein each groups are coming off very completely different sorts of outcomes and performances midweek within the Champions League.
Juventus get a shot at revenge towards the defending Serie A champions lower than two months after Napoli handed the Bianconeri their first loss underneath Luciano Spalletti. Since then, Juve have misplaced only one different fixture — yeah, we gained’t speak way more about what occurred final weekend — and have gotten inside hanging distance of Antonio Conte’s squad. If not for that loss to Cagliari, Juventus would have entered this weekend’s showdown in Turin with the prospect to leap over Napoli within the Serie A standings. But due to it, Juve and Napoli are separated by 4 factors in third and fifth place, respectively, getting into Matchday 22 with the prospect to reap the benefits of this head-to-head matchup in addition to AC Milan heading to Rome to face Roma simply a short while after the ultimate whistle sounds on the Allianz Stadium.
It’s an enormous weekend with 4 out of the highest 5 dealing with one another. That comes after there was a brief hope Friday evening when Inter have been trailing Pisa on the San Siro by a few targets. Then the Serie A leaders completely steamrolled the worst crew within the league and scored six unanswered targets to increase their benefit over Milan and Napoli to 6 and 9 factors, respectively. (Not good as a result of it’s Inter.)
Quite a bit like the primary time when these two groups performed final month, Napoli are extraordinarily shorthanded. As a lot as having Romelu Lukaku again within the fold is a lift for Conte, the harm listing in Naples continues to be extraordinarily lengthy — and with a number of main names nonetheless current. Napoli will likely be with out Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Billy Gilmour, Amir Rrahmani, David Neres and Matteo Politano. And there may be a brand new title on that listing, with goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic reportedly a doubt after struggling a muscle harm in coaching earlier than the crew left for Turin. They’ve additionally shipped out summer time signings Noa Lang and Lorenzo Lucca on mortgage offers inside the previous couple of days, which means the restricted depth they’d is now even much less plentiful.
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That is way from the perfect state of affairs for Conte to try to cope with.
Then once more, Napoli have been coping with loads of accidents when Juve headed to Naples seven weeks in the past and that’s one thing they have been in a position to overcome after they claimed a 2-1 win over Spalletti’s squad.
That, in fact, needed to do a good quantity with how Spalletti approached issues from the onset — taking part in Kenan Yildiz as a false 9, seeing it backfire, watching Napoli take a lead after which by no means absolutely with the ability to get better from a brutal first-half efficiency regardless of Yildiz’s greatest efforts.
Spalletti, fortunately, hasn’t repeated those self same tactical errors from early December as Juve have put collectively a pleasant run of type following the loss to Napoli. And due to it, they’ve been in a position to get near the highest 4, if not really be within the high 4 for just a few days even with the entire groups in entrance of them being so compact. We’ll simply go forward and word this piece of info from Juventus’ website forward of Napoli’s go to to Turin this weekend:
Since Luciano Spalletti’s arrival as coach, the Bianconeri have picked up 24 factors in Serie A — greater than Napoli’s 22, and bettered solely by Milan (28) and Inter (31).
So you gotta consider there may be a bit of shade and function in pointing that Juve have two extra factors than Napoli does since Spalletti, the person who ended a three-decade title drought in Naples, joined probably the most profitable membership in Italy. But it additionally speaks to the truth that Spalletti has righted the ship at Juventus. That is even with the loss to Napoli. That is even with the loss to Cagliari this previous weekend.
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And dealing with Napoli, irrespective of what number of gamers they at present have injured, will likely be a check of that.
More than it was seven weeks in the past. This is an opportunity for Juventus, on their house turf, to get three vastly worthwhile factors towards a crew that’s 4 factors in entrance of them within the Serie A standings. With Como completely stomping on Torino on Saturday, Juve will take the sphere on Sunday in sixth place. They beat Napoli, and so they’re proper again on the tail of Conte’s squad as they then tune into occurs on the Olimpico on Sunday evening.
This is one other a type of weekends the place there’s an opportunity for quantity of assist to return. But Juventus should first care for their very own enterprise earlier than considering of all that. And towards a crew that they misplaced to simply 49 days in the past.
TEAM NEWS
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Neither Spalletti nor Conte held pre-match press conferences on Saturday, due to this fact we’re simply going off what the Italian media may be telling us in the case of participant availability.
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We do know of the three gamers who’re undoubtedly not going to be collaborating within the second assembly with Napoli: Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani and Arek Milik.
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It seems the one actual beginning lineup query mark Spalletti might need is between Francisco Conceição and Fabio Miretti. That, in fact, would imply a distinct beginning place within the attacking trio behind the striker in Spalletti’s 4-2-3-1 for Weston McKennie relying on who Spalletti decides to go together with.
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Juventus have stored six clear sheets of their final 9 Serie A matchups. That’s good.
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Manuel Locatelli, as he has been for just a few weeks now, is one yellow card away from suspension.
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JUVENTUS PLAYER TO WATCH
Big video games name for giant gamers to probably do massive participant issues. There is not any larger participant on this Juventus squad proper now than the younger No. 10 who can have each single individual within the Allianz Stadium on their fringe of their seat each time he’s on the ball come Sunday evening.
Yeah, it’s precisely who you assume I’m speaking about.
We are sitting in late-January and Kenan Yildiz has already equaled his variety of targets from the 2024-25 season. In that yr, we noticed the makings of a particular participant. This season, that has solely continued, seemingly trying like he’s on the cusp of stardom for a Juventus crew that’s determined for that type of constructing block.
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Now he will get one other crack at Napoli. You know, the identical membership wherein Yildiz gave Juve a glimmer of hope towards after such a brutal opening 45 minutes the primary time round final month in Naples.
Yildiz has gotten previous the dip in type he had initially of Spalletti’s tenure as supervisor. You take a look at what he’s doing proper now, you’ll discover only a few situations of when he hasn’t had some kind of purpose contribution. Let’s simply go forward and return to the identical Juventus web site put up that we referenced earlier:
Kenan Yildiz has had a hand in 101 pictures taken this season in Serie A — 60 of his personal and 41 probabilities created — fewer than solely Nico Paz’s 117. Yildiz has additionally hit the put up greater than some other participant within the league this season (5 instances), in addition to being the league’s most-fouled participant within the ultimate third of the pitch.
All of that’s good, proper?
Napoli will likely be removed from full energy when Conte’s squad walks out of the tunnel on the Allianz on Sunday. They can have gamers beginning who don’t usually begin. They will likely be lacking essential gamers in nearly each place group there’s. They might very nicely be fielding a goalkeeper who misplaced his beginning job earlier this season and hasn’t performed since September.
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You know who likes to reap the benefits of these conditions and create some (good) chaos on the sphere? That could be Kenan Yildiz, who has proven loads of instances already in his younger profession that he can definitely rise to the event throughout massive video games like this one most undoubtedly is.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.
Where: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. native time in Italy and throughout Europe, 5 p.m. within the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Central time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Television: TLN (Canada); Sky Sports Uno, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).
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Online/Streaming: Paramount+, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
Other reside viewing choices may be discovered here, and as at all times, you can too observe together with us reside and all of the silly issues we are saying on Bluesky. If you haven’t already, join the community on Black & White & Read All Over, and be a part of within the dialogue under.