Preview: Napoli vs Cagliari – Team News, Line-ups & Prediction

Stadio Diego Armando Maradona kinds the backdrop for an thrilling Serie A round-two conflict between Napoli and Cagliari. It caps off Saturday’s schedule in Italy’s elite division as Antonio Conte’s males search one other win earlier than going into September’s worldwide break.

Objectives from final season’s MVP Scott McTominay and newcomer Kevin De Bruyne impressed Napoli to a snug 2-0 win at newly promoted Sassuolo on matchday one. In doing so, the Partenopei prolonged their unbeaten Serie A streak to 13 matches (W8, D5).

Boasting the longest unbeaten run throughout Europe’s top-five leagues, Napoli head into proceedings as large favorites to make it 14 in a row. Taking part in on the Maradona Stadium for the primary time in 2025/26 can solely reinforce Napoli’s perception that they’ll begin the brand new season with back-to-back wins.

Alternatively, perennial strugglers Cagliari held Fiorentina to a 1-1 draw final weekend however have since misplaced their standout striker, Roberto Piccoli, to the identical opponent. Nonetheless, new supervisor Fabio Pisacane claimed a good outcome on his touchline debut, maybe setting the tone for a extra resilient marketing campaign.

Cagliari barely prevented relegation final time period and look set for an additional season-long struggle towards the drop. Maybe the mortgage arrivals of Michael Folorunsho and Sebastiano Esposito might assist the membership offset Piccoli’s departure, with questions hovering over their scoring capability.

Match Preview

Napoli

As aforementioned, Napoli’s league type is second to none in Europe’s conventional top-five divisions. Moreover, Conte’s prices have received eight of their final 11 residence outings in Serie A (D3), growing the chance of sustaining a formidable matchday-two document.

Certainly, Napoli have received on Gameweek 2 within the final 5 seasons, together with a 3-0 demolition of Bologna at this stadium of their title-winning 2024/25 marketing campaign. One other win with out conceding is a definite chance, contemplating they’ve turn out to be synonymous with defensive solidity underneath Conte.

Napoli have been the one staff in Serie A to concede underneath 30 objectives final time period (27). Furthermore, they’ve capitulated greater than as soon as in solely one in all their earlier 13 league video games. Significantly cagey within the first half, they’ve shipped only one purpose earlier than halftime of their final 12 fixtures.

Contemplating they humbled Cagliari by 2+ objectives to nil in each league encounters final season, it’s laborious to look previous one other routine victory for the house facet.

Cagliari

The guests can’t be thrilled about going through Napoli this early within the season, as they hope to search out their ft underneath Pisacane and construct momentum. Harm limitation could also be on the forefront of Cagliari’s thoughts, not least as a result of they’ve solely received one in all their final 28 league matches towards this opposition (D8, L19).

Though solely success in that stretch got here at this floor in 2019, it’s price noting that Cagliari have conceded at the very least two objectives in 11 of their final 13 visits to Naples. Cagliari’s away type towards the top of the earlier marketing campaign was dire, producing only one win from ten league fixtures on the street (D3, L6).

Subsequently, Pisacane should discover a treatment for Cagliari’s journey illness to spice up their probabilities of trying up fairly than down. Nevertheless, anticipating him to take action on Napoli’s residence floor appears to be like far-fetched. Discovering a gap purpose might be decisive, realizing six of Cagliari’s final 9 away league fixtures have seen one or each groups fail to attain.

Group Information

Napoli will likely be with out star striker Romelu Lukaku. With the Belgian going through a prolonged spell on the sidelines, Rasmus Hojlund is on his option to becoming a member of Conte’s staff from Manchester United on mortgage. Nevertheless, Lorenzo Lucca will lead the road this weekend. Along with Lukaku, new arrival Miguel Gutierrez is out with an ankle damage.

As for Cagliari, long-serving stalwart Leonardo Pavoletti shouldn’t be in competition. The identical goes for goalkeeper Boris Radunovic. Esposito will doubtless take Pavoletti’s place in assault, with ex-Napoli stopper Elia Caprile set to interchange Radunovic in purpose.

Napoli vs Cagliari Potential Beginning Line-ups

Naples (4-2-3-1): Meret; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Jesus, Olivera; Anguissa, Lobotka; Politano, De Bruyne, MCTominay; Lucca.

Cagliari (3-5-2): Caprile; Luperto, Mina, Obert; Zappa, adopo, meadows, folorunshi, Idrissi; Luvumbo, Esposito.

Napoli vs Cagliari Prediction

Napoli’s formidable residence type and rock-solid protection underneath Conte make them overwhelming favorites to take all three factors. Cagliari’s poor away document additional tilts the stability towards the reigning champions.

With that in thoughts, we anticipate Napoli to cruise to a different comfy win, doubtless by a margin of two or extra objectives.

Prediction: Napoli to Win

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