Roma-Napoli and others – Italian tips for Saturday

We look at 2+1 games from the last round before Christmas, with Roma vs Napoli and a look at what Juventus can do against Frosinone, as well as Verona vs Cagliari.

Frosinone-Juventus

Juventus’ 4-point gap over Inter in Serie A has increased thanks to Allegri’s side’s one x against Genoa. On Saturday at noon, they will be the guests of Frosinone, a team that pulled off a huge surprise in the cup by scoring a four at the Maradona. Although the newcomer’s draw was not exactly difficult, the 17 points at home are still a very impressive haul that could secure their place in the group. There are no new absentees for the visitors, but the home side have serious defensive problems, so it is clear that the Old Lady are the favourites. But we don’t dare to take the Turin side, so we’ll go with a standard Juve tip.

Verona-Cagliari

Verona vs Cagliari could be a good knockout clash, with only 2 points separating the two teams, so where the 3 points go is particularly important. Hellas haven’t won a game since August, so if they can’t win against Cagliari on Saturday or Salernitana next weekend, they probably won’t start 2024 with Marco Baroni. It’s a very twin-sided game, which would not be a bad thing for the Sardinians, who last time out played a decent, close game in Naples. We went for safety in the previous tip, here we’ll take the odds above the treble.

Roma-Napoli

A word is a word, it’s very polite to call the clash between 8th and 5th place a rivalry, but Roma-Napoli could be an interesting encounter. The situation in the capital is getting more and more worrying, which of course is not helped by the many absentees, but the 25 points and the positioning can be called very modest. With a lot of absentees, it’s particularly problematic that Roma’s draw looks like Napoli, @Juventus, Atalanta, @Milan – and we certainly wouldn’t be surprised if they dump Mourinho in January after a poor run of form. At the same time, we can’t trust Napoli either, especially after a 0-4 against Frosinone.

Coach Mazzarri has almost a full squad to work with, while Roma have Abraham, Kumbulla, Smalling, Dybala, Azmoun, Spinazzola and Aouar injured, so the Portuguese manager has his work cut out. We expect a tense atmosphere at the Olimpico, especially if the defending champions take the lead, so we’ll be pulling in the red card for this 90 minutes.