Napoli will aim to renew their hopes of finishing in a European spot when they face lowly Cagliari today at the Sardegna Arena.
The Francesco Calzona era at Napoli began with a 1-1 draw against Barcelona at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in the first leg of the two-legged Champions League Round of 16. The Partenopei have managed to win only once after returning to Italy following the Supercoppa Italiana clashes in Saudi Arabia. The 1-0 defeat to Milan plunged their hopes of staging a late fightback to climb the table. The 1-1 stalemate with Genoa in their previous Serie A outing was the final nail in the coffin for the recently sacked manager Walter Mazzarri. Currently sitting in 9th place with 36 points, Napoli are 12 points away from 4th-placed Bologna and they need to win their upcoming games if they want to compete in the European stage for next season.
Meanwhile, Cagliari approach this match on the back of a 1-1 draw with Udinese. The Udine-based side’s Jordan Zemura opened the scoring in the match and Gianluca Gaetano’s 44th-minute equaliser helped his side earn a massive point in the race to secure survival. It has been over a month since Cagliari won their last match, which was a narrow 2-1 victory over Bologna and their chances of relegation are increasing with each matchday. While they are just a point away from safety now, the Rossoblu can still go clear of the drop zone if they manage to register points from their next few matches.Â
Here are the predicted line-ups for the match according to La Repubblica:
Cagliari (4-3-2-1): Scuffet; Zappa, Dossena, Mina, Augello; Nandez, Makoumbou, Deiola; Gaetano, Luvumbo; Lapadula
Napoli (4-3-3): Meret; Mazzocchi, Rrahmani, Juan Jesus, Mario Rui; Anguissa, Lobotka, Zielinski; Politano, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia
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Trambak Bhattacherjee | GIFN
