Napoli vs Internazionale – Coppa Italia – Preview

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Sreya

Napoli host Inter Milan at Stadio San Paolo, Naples on Tuesday, 19th January in the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia in one of the most high-profile contests of the Italian football. These two sides sit on top of the Serie A standings – Napoli leading the premier domestic league in Italy with 44 points while Inter Milan are just four points off the summit.

Both clubs cruised through their previous round of fixtures in Coppa Italia. Napoli defeated Serie A strugglers Hellas Verona 3-0 with goals from Omar El Kaddouri, Dries Mertens and Jose Callejon. Inter Milan got the better off Serie B side Cagliari as Rodrigo Palacio, Marcelo Brozovic and Ivan Perisic found the back of the net in a 3-0 victory.

Team News

Maurizio Sarri will be without Nathaniel Chalobah only as the Chelsea loanee had to fly back to England due to his mother’s death last week. Nemanja Vidic and Felipe Melo are confirmed absentees for the visitors, the former through an injury and the latter due to a suspension. Gary Medel has been listed as a doubt as well.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“I’m satisfied with my team’s perfomance, their ability to keep a high-pace in the game and I’m already focused on the next competition in the Italian Cup. We are niether worried about the standings nor about the transfer market that in my oinion is just a disruption at the moment.”

– Maurizio Sarri, Napoli.

“You have to put the ball in the back of the net and we need to improve our attacking play but you don’t stay top of the league for 15 games by chance. We have our qualities and we mustn’t waste them. We need to keep calm because it’s a long season.

Sometimes we put ourselves under too much pressure because we make mistakes. At times we want to be too clever but often football is about doing the simple things.”

– Roberto Mancini, Inter Milan.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, Napoli have won thirteen of its twenty five previous encounters with Internazionale. The previous instance when these two clubs faced each other at Naples this season was a Serie A fixture when the home side won 2-1 courtesy a brace from Gonzalo Higuain.

Sarri will be hoping for a repeat of the performance Napoli displayed back in November while Mancini has asserted Internazionale must improve their recent showings if they wish to win a trophy come end of the season.

On current form, Napoli will start as favorites and a 1-0 result in favor of the hosts is the most probable scoreline.