Napoli - AC Monza predictions and free betting tips [29/12/2023]

On Friday 29th of December, as part of the 18th round of the Italian Serie A, Napoli will host Monza on their home ground. The current Scudetto holders, prior to Christmas, suffered a defeat against Roma, while the visitors are sitting in 11th place in the league table with 21 points earned.

Predicted Lineups

Napoli: Meret; Di Lorenzo, Jesus, Rahmani, Rui; Angissa, Kajuste, Zielinski; Raspadory, Simeone, Kvaratskhelia.

Monza: Di Gregorio; D'Ambrosio, Calderola, Ittso; Perreira, Galardini, Pessina, Churria; Colpani, Vignato; Colombo.

Stadium

The match will take place in Naples at the Maradona Stadium.

Napoli

In Napoli, the talk about the secured Scudetto has long ended. Midway through this season, few doubt the team's inability to defend the Italian championship title. Walter Mazzarri's team ranks a disappointing 7th place in the league table, having suffered 3 losses in the last 4 matches in the national championship: against Inter (0:3) and Juve (1:0), and then, only just beating Cagliari at home (2:1). However, following this, the light-blue twice disappointed their fans - firstly losing heavily to Frosinone in the Cup (0:4), and subsequently capitulating against Roma in Serie A (2:0).

After Matteo Politano was sent off, winger Lorenzo Pellegrini of Roma opened the scoring. Victor Osimhen followed Politano into the tunnel, receiving his second yellow card, and Romelu Lukaku from the penalty spot put all questions about the match outcome aside. Despite this, Mazzarri became only the 10th head coach in the history of Serie A to conduct 500 matches at the helm of clubs in the elite division. However, considering the results of the southerners, few will be surprised by another resignation. On top of all other team issues, the infirmary is overflowing: left-back Olivera, key midfielder Lindstrom, and Elmas and Lobotka are all injured. Finally, the team's two main strikers - Politano (5 goals and 3 assists) and Osimhen (7 goals and 2 assists) - will be disqualified after their dismissals last weekend. Given this, the main threat at the gates of Monza will come from Georgian winger Khvicha Kvartsakhelia (5 goals and 3 assists in SA), and Raspadory (3 goals, 2 assists) will appear at the forefront of the attack. Giovanni Simeone may come off the bench in the second half to bolster the game.

Monza

Last season, Monza surprised with its successful performances, but now the team is gradually turning into a tough nut to crack in the Italian championship. The Biancorossi are in 11th place in the league table, far from relegation and having an 8-point lead over the 18th ranked Cagliari. However, Raffaele Palladino's charges are not having the best of times: they lost three out of the last four league matches against Juve (4:1) and Milan (3:0) and Fiorentina (0:1). Prior to the loss from Fiorentina last week, the Biancorossi kept a clean sheet in half of their home games, while only emerging victorious twice on their travels. In general, Monza has suffered six defeats in this campaign, all of which came against teams that finished in last season's top eight.

The club's main striker Kaprari, who suffered a severe injury at the beginning of the season, will not travel with the team to Naples. In addition, the Argentine World Champion, Papu Gomez, remains disqualified due to a positive doping test. The same can be said for defender Pablo Mari, who has collected too many yellow cards, so Brazilian Ittso will deputise in the centre of defence. Former national team players Galardini and Pessina should start, and Colpani (6 goals) and Colombo (3 goals) will make a trio with Akpa Akpro. It cannot be said that Monza is doing well with attack in away matches: only 6 goals were scored in 8 games.

Head to head

In August 2022, the Serie A debutant was routed in Naples with a score of 4:0, but in May of the current year, the Red-Whites redeemed themselves with a home victory of 2:0.

Match Prediction

Napoli will do all they can to conclude an overall successful year of 2023 with a home victory. Surprisingly, the Parthenopeans are struggling in this campaign on their home ground, and Monza has only scored a total of six goals on the road this Serie A season. The disqualification of Osimhen is compensated by the absence of the guests' main centre-back Pablo Mari due to an accumulation of yellow cards, thus we are backing a home victory on Friday evening.

Total Prediction

At the same time, one should not expect a multitude of goals: Monza knows how to defend compactly against any opponent, and the hosts will have to manage without Politano and Osimhen. My prediction - total goals under 3.