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Napoli vs Atalanta Prediction & Betting tips
Napoli-Atalanta is the only game in this round that is not played on Saturday, this of course has everything to do with Napoli’s Europa League campaign. Atalanta still hopes to reach the Champions League for the first time ever but suffered damage last Monday. Can it get back to Naples?
Napoli:
Napoli got a welcome opponent in the European duels last weekend. It went to visit Chievo, which is stiffly final and is already certain of relegation. As expected, The Flying Donkeys had little to say against the number two. After fifteen minutes, Kalidou Koulibaly headed home from a nicely turned in corner from Dries Mertens. The inspirational Chievo could not entertain the 15,000 spectators and soon saw the score rise in the second half. Arkadiusz Milik scored his seventeenth of the season after which Koulibaly made his second of the game, again from a corner. In the end, Chievo also struck from a corner, reaching the final score of 1-3.
The fact that the Neapolitans were able to play the match calmly at the weekend did not help them in the European meeting with Arsenal. Carlo Ancelotti hinted in the press conference to Milik, Insigne and Mertens together in the attack to make up for the 2-0 defeat but nevertheless opted for a basic line-up without the Belgian. The Azzuri had the bulk of the game, but were totally ineffective with it, of the twenty shots, only three ended up between the posts and none in the goal. Arsenal was a lot more effective in that regard. Lacazette fired a free kick in the 36th minute, it was only the second shot on goal of the Gunners. This also proved to be the only goal of the match, Mertens came in the team as third striker in the second half, but he too could not make the difference. Napoli was therefore unable to score against the team from London in two games.
After the game, the news also came out that Mertens was not offered a new contract from the club management. His contract runs until 2020, but with a good offer the public’s favorite may already leave this summer.
Atalanta:
Atalanta received a previous round of relegation candidate Empoli and it seemed that he would simply get the three points. After three minutes, Empoli got a good chance through striker Farias, forcing Atalanta goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini to save him from the match. After this, Atalanta was the master of the entire competition and the chance of chance followed.
After nine minutes, Hans Hateboer got the first chance not to be missed, but the Dutchman headed over close. In the 26th minute even three chances in a row for the Bergamo team followed during a scrimmage, miraculously enough, Empoli goalkeeper Dragowski kept it in cooperation with his defenders. In the remainder of the game, the game image remained the same, Hateboer again missed a chance at close range and again hit a header wrong. In the end of the game, Dragowski had a save on a concealed heel from Mancini and the game ended in a 0-0 score. Atalanta had a total of 32 shots, of which eighteen on goal, because Dragowski kept the bulk of it personally, he was without a doubt the man of the match.
The Orobici suffered expensive point loss, competitors AC Milan and AS Roma both managed to win in the same round. The gap with the number four from Milan is now two points, the gap with the number five from Rome one point. Atalanta does have an advantage in the battle for place four, because it has by far the best goal difference thanks to the scoring urge it displayed this season.
Napoli vs Atalanta head to head matches
03.12.18 SA Atalanta Napoli 1 : 2
21.01.18 SA Atalanta Napoli 0 : 1
02.01.18 COP Napoli Atalanta 1 : 2
27.08.17 SA Napoli Atalanta 3 : 1
25.02.17 SA Napoli Atalanta 0 : 2