On Dec. 7, 2025, Luciano Spalletti headed again to the stadium through which he led Napoli to certainly one of their largest 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 numerous 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 through which each groups are coming off very totally 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 below Luciano Spalletti. Since then, Juve have misplaced only one different fixture — yeah, we gained’t discuss far more about what occurred final weekend — and have gotten inside placing 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 possibility to leap over Napoli within the Serie A standings. However due to it, Juve and Napoli are separated by 4 factors in third and fifth place, respectively, getting into Matchday 22 with the possibility to make the most 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 a giant weekend with 4 out of the highest 5 going through one another. That comes after there was a brief hope Friday night time when Inter have been trailing Pisa on the San Siro by a few targets. Then the Serie A leaders completely steamrolled the worst workforce 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.)
So much 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 damage listing in Naples continues to be extraordinarily lengthy — and with a bunch of main names nonetheless current. Napoli can be with out Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Billy Gilmour, Amir Rrahmani, David Neres and Matteo Politano. And there is likely to be a brand new identify on that listing, with goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic reportedly a doubt after struggling a muscle damage in coaching earlier than the workforce left for Turin. They’ve additionally shipped out summer season signings Noa Lang and Lorenzo Lucca on mortgage offers inside the previous couple of days, that means the restricted depth they’d is now even much less plentiful.
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That’s removed 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 capable of overcome after they claimed a 2-1 win over Spalletti’s squad.
That, in fact, needed to do an honest 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 well from a brutal first-half efficiency regardless of Yildiz’s finest 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 because of it, they’ve been capable of get near the highest 4, if not truly be within the high 4 for just a few days even with all the groups in entrance of them being so compact. We’ll simply go forward and notice 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 that you gotta consider there is likely to 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 essentially the most profitable membership in Italy. But it surely additionally speaks to the truth that Spalletti has righted the ship at Juventus. That’s even with the loss to Napoli. That’s even with the loss to Cagliari this previous weekend.
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And going through Napoli, irrespective of what number of gamers they presently have injured, can be a check of that.
Greater than it was seven weeks in the past. It is a likelihood for Juventus, on their house turf, to get three vastly useful factors towards a workforce 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 sector 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 night time.
That is one other a kind of weekends the place there’s an opportunity for an excellent quantity of assist to come back. However Juventus should first care for their very own enterprise earlier than pondering of all that. And towards a workforce that they misplaced to simply 49 days in the past.
TEAM NEWS
Neither Spalletti nor Conte held pre-match press conferences on Saturday, due to this fact we’re simply going off what the Italian media is likely to be telling us on the subject of participant availability.
We do know of the three gamers who’re positively not going to be participating within the second assembly with Napoli: Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani and Arek Milik.
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 unique 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 along with.
Juventus have saved six clear sheets of their final 9 Serie A matchups. That’s good.
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
Huge video games name for giant gamers to doubtlessly do large participant issues. There is no such thing as a larger participant on this Juventus squad proper now than the younger No. 10 who could have each single particular person within the Allianz Stadium on their fringe of their seat each time he’s on the ball come Sunday night time.
Yeah, it’s precisely who you suppose I’m speaking about.
We’re sitting in late-January and Kenan Yildiz has already equaled his variety of targets from the 2024-25 season. In that 12 months, 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 workforce that’s determined for that type of constructing block.
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Now he will get one other crack at Napoli. You already know, the identical membership through which 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 firstly of Spalletti’s tenure as supervisor. You have a look at what he’s doing proper now, you’ll discover only a few situations of when he hasn’t had some form of objective contribution. Let’s simply go forward and return to the identical Juventus web site submit 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 submit greater than some other participant within the league this season (5 occasions), in addition to being the league’s most-fouled participant within the remaining third of the pitch.
All of that’s good, proper?
Napoli can be removed from full energy when Conte’s squad walks out of the tunnel on the Allianz on Sunday. They may have gamers beginning who don’t usually begin. They are going to be lacking essential gamers in nearly each place group there’s. They might very effectively be fielding a goalkeeper who misplaced his beginning job earlier this season and hasn’t performed since September.
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You already know who likes to make the most of these conditions and create some (good) chaos on the sector? That will be Kenan Yildiz, who has proven loads of occasions already in his younger profession that he can actually rise to the event throughout large video games like this one most positively is.
MATCH INFO
When: Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.
The place: Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.
Official kickoff time: 6 p.m. native time in Italy and throughout Europe, 5 p.m. in the UK, 12 p.m. Jap time, 11:45 a.m. Central time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.
HOW TO WATCH
Tv: TLN (Canada); Sky Sports activities Uno, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).
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On-line/Streaming: , DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).
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