Napoli vs Lazio – Betting Preview
On Friday night, Napoli welcomes southern rivals Lazio with the hope of increasing their lead atop Serie A to an incredible 21 points.
The Scudetto favourites return to Stadio Maradona where their opponents will aim for victory to continue in good form for a top-four finish after winning a fifth consecutive away game in the league without giving up a goal.
Napoli Preview
Having secured a seventh straight league victory at Sassuolo before taking a 2-0 lead in their Champions League tie with Eintracht Frankfurt, Napoli added a third success in the space of a week when they saw off Empoli last time out.
Victor Osimhen scored in his eighth consecutive Serie A game, becoming the first player to do so since Cristiano Ronaldo more than three years ago, and extending his lead over closest challenger Lautaro Martinez in the battle to be named this year’s Capocannoniere.
Mario Rui was dismissed from the game midway through the second half when he yelled at Francesco Caputo of Empoli, but the Partenopei still won 2-0 at Stadio Castellani.
Napoli has already won 21 of its 24 league games, scoring 58 goals while allowing just 15 for a team that is undoubtedly headed for a long-awaited title victory in the coming months or possibly even weeks.
Lazio Preview
Lazio have kept things close on the road this season, conceding just seven league goals away from their home turf, a record matched only by Napoli.
Yet, their most recent opponents are not only unbeaten at home in Serie A, but also score over three goals per game there on average.
The scale of the task facing Maurizio Sarri as he gets ready to visit his old team is therefore fairly obvious, although his current squad is still very much on track to play in the Champions League next season.
Ciro Immobile’s lack of form and fitness up front has been partially offset by Sarri’s club, who are second only to Juventus in Serie A this season for clean sheets kept.
They may feel that they are the only team capable of stopping the league leaders for 90 minutes. Naturally, Juve had similar thoughts before being humiliated 5-1 at Naples just after the holiday break!
1×2 Betting Odds
Let’s analyse the 1×2 betting market.
On their way to being crowned Serie A champions, Napoli will face one of their toughest challenges on Friday. Sarri will make every effort to defeat Spalletti despite having grown up as a Partenopei fan, but he is still expected to fall short against a one of the best team in Europe right now.
And the betting market agrees!
The runaway leaders are the favourites to win at home @ 1.67.
Lazio are a good side themselves, but when faced against one of the hottest teams in Europe right now, they will feel the difficulty!
Lazio are the away underdogs @ 5.90.
The market odds of a stalemate stands @ 4.30.
Total goals over/under
Let’s analyse the over/under market.
The odds that the total number of goals scored will be over 2.5, stands @ 2.00.
While the odds that the total number of goals will be under 2.5, stands @ 1.99.
As you can see the market is on the edge when it comes to predicting how many goals this game will see!
So perhaps it is best to expect Napoli to do just enough to secure yet another win.
