You must go back 50 years to find the last time SPAL competed in Serie A. Since then, the club have spent much of their time between Serie B and Serie C and having faced several difficulties even found themselves in the fourth tier of Italian football. However, in 2016 SPAL won promotion back to Serie B and did not waste any time by winning promotion to Serie A the following season. This weekend they face their biggest test so far as they welcome high flying Napoli to the Stadio Paolo Mazza.
SPAL Form
Having started the season promisingly, SPAL come into this match on the back of 3 defeats in Serie A. Having travelled to Milan twice and played Cagliari at home in-between, this was always going to be a tough period of the season for SPAL and they have struggled. They started the campaign with a good 0-0 draw at Lazio and followed that up with a 3-2 home victory over Udinese. However, their bubble soon burst as they went down 2-0 to Inter Milan and then lost 2-0 at home to Cagliari, a game they were hoping to win. On Wednesday night, they lost in the San Siro again, this time to AC Milan in a 2-0 defeat and sit 15th in the Serie A table, with 4 points from a possible 15 available.
Napoli Form
Napoli have enjoyed a tremendous start to the Serie A season and not only have they been winning games, they have been earning rave reviews around Europe for their style of football. Napoli come into this match sitting top of the table with maximum points from their 5 games played and have been scoring goals for fun.
They started the season with a 3-1 win at Hellas Verona and netted three times at home to Atalanta and in Bologna to pick up another 6 points. Then followed a thumping 6-0 home victory over Benevento and a 4-1 win at Lazio in mid-week. Napoli have scored an average of 3.8 goals in the Serie A this season and have conceded only 3 goals, giving them the best attack and the joint second best defensive record.
Team News
SPAL will be without the injured duo of Sergio Floccari and Alex Meret. Playing a 3-5-2 formation, there is place for only two forwards in the team and one of Mirco Antenucci, Marco Borriello and Alberto Paloschi must settle for a place on the bench.
Napoli continue to have the luxury of a fully fit squad and Maurizio Sarri must decide if he will rest players ahead of the Champions League in mid-week. However, Serie A success is what the fans crave most of all and he may be tempted to go with his strongest starting XI.
Top Betting Tips
Given them form of both teams, you cannot look beyond an away win in this match and Napoli are 2/9 with Ladbrokes to come away with the victory. SPAL have struggled defensively in recent games and Napoli will see this as another opportunity to add to their excellent goal scoring record. You can get 10/11 with Coral for Napoli to score 3 or more goals in this match. Therefore, to find any value it makes sense to look at the handicap market and Ladbrokes offer 8/5 for Napoli -2.