Juventus vs Napoli Prediction: Scott to scare Old Lady in Turin

There's a heavyweight clash taking place in Serie A on Saturday evening (17:00, TNT Sports 3) as Juventus host Napoli at the Allianz Stadium. Both clubs have made impressive starts to the season under new managers - I Bianconeri won their first two matches 3-0 with Thiago Motta before back-to-back goalless draws, while Napoli are second - at the time of writing - having recovered from a 3-0 defeat in Antonio Conte's first game in charge to win their last three, scoring nine goals and conceding just once in that run.

Below you can find my Juventus vs Napoli prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds, ahead of this clash in Turin.

Team News

Motta made just one change to his starting XI for Tuesday's 3-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, bringing in USA international Weston McKennie for his first start of the season at the expense of Brazilian midfielder Douglas Luiz, who made his full debut for Old Lady in last weekend's stalemate with Empoli.

McKennie struck Juve's second goal against the Dutch side and will hope he has done enough to keep his place for Saturday's clash, with Motta likely pondering whether to stick with the side that served him so well from the beginning in midweek.

Francisco Conceicao and Arkadiusz Milik remain injured, however.

Football Odds

Napoli aren't in European competition this season so Gli Azzurri will have had nearly a week to recover ahead of their trip to Turin.

The time spent on the training pitch will likely have been particularly useful for deadline day signings Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour, who joined from Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion respectively.

The Scotland internationals made their debuts as 74th-minute substitutes at Cagliari's Unipol Domus last Sunday and neither can be ruled out of starting contention on Saturday, although it feels likelier that McTominay would make his first start given the outlay on him compared to his compatriot.

Conte may decide to keep things as they are given the dominant scoreline they won by last time out, but it has been pointed out that 4-0 perhaps wasn't a true reflection of events, with only one of those strikes arriving before the 65th minute.

Romelu Lukaku struck Napoli's third against Cagliari and goes in search of a third goal in as many games to kickstart his season-long loan spell at the club, and he will be supported in attack by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and one of Matteo Politano or McTominay.

Mathias Olivera and David Neres are two others pushing for starts, but Conte isn't expected to make sweeping changes after three wins on the spin.

Juventus vs Napoli Odds

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Juventus are 6/5, or a 45.5% chance, to beat Napoli at home for the second season running, following their 1-0 win at the Allianz Stadium last December, when Federico Gatti struck the only goal of the game in the 51st minute. The visitors, meanwhile, can be backed at 12/5, giving Conte's side an implied win probability of 29.4%.

There hasn't been a draw between these two teams since January 2022, when a goal each from Dries Mertens and Federico Chiese saw the match finish 1-1. A stalemate on Saturday can be backed at 9/4, and a repeat of that 1-1 scoreline is priced at 11/2.

Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic (9/5) is favourite in the anytime scorer market, and the Serbian is 5/1 to find the net first, while Kvaratskhelia and Giovanni Simeone are lowest-priced for Napoli, with both players 3/1 to strike at any point during the match, and 15/2 to fire first.

Player to Receive a Card - Giovanni Di Lorenzo (NAP) @ 18/5

Di Lorenzo has been a loyal servant to Napoli since joining from Empoli in 2019, but there were times this summer when it seemed that the 31-year-old would end his five-year association with the club.

An exit out of Naples never transpired, however, and the Italy international is now in the early stages of his sixth season at the club, which has begun with the defender starting all four of Gli Azzurri's games in the early Conte era.

Di Lorenzo is, traditionally, a right-back, but he has been deployed on the right-hand side of a back three in Conte's new-look system, meaning that there is less emphasis placed on him to attack.

However, he still comes into close contact with opposition wingers and forwards, evidenced by the number of fouls he is making in Serie A this term - averaging 1.8 per game across the first four matches, which is up from 0.8 in the competition last season, albeit with a very small sample size under Conte.

Di Lorenzo was booked six times in the Italian top flight last term but is yet to be cautioned in a competitive game - he saw yellow in a pre-season friendly with Girona last month - since Napoli were beaten 3-0 at home by Atalanta on March 30.

I think the conditions are there on Saturday for that to change, though. He will likely come face to face with Juve's tricky Turkish winger, Kenan Yildiz, who scored a sublime strike on his Champions League debut earlier in the week. The 19-year-old established himself in the Old Lady's squad last season and has already made a big impression with Motta, starting all five games under the ex-Bologna boss.

Yildiz has come under some rough treatment from defenders, particularly those from Como and PSV, who both fouled him three times in defeats to the Italian giants.

I expect Yildiz to run at the likes of Di Lorenzo on Saturday, looking to draw him in to move into a more dangerous position or win some useful free-kicks for his side.

Di Lorenzo has been booked twice for Napoli against Juve and committed two fouls when the sides last met in March. He may have to take alternative action on Saturday if Yildiz and co are on form.

Anytime Scorer - Scott McTominay (NAP) @ 11/2

McTominay is by no means a guaranteed starter on Saturday as he is still getting up to speed with Conte's methods and life in Italy, but considering Napoli spent £25.6m on the midfielder - making the 27-year-old their seventh-most expensive signing of all time - you would think he would force his way into the starting XI sooner than later.

Whether he plays 20 minutes or 90 minutes, McTominay is still likely to cause consternation in the Juve backline on at least one occasion.

The Scotland international was often a figure of ridicule in a Manchester United shirt but the issues around that club meant the perfect conditions for him to thrive were never laid out, and he was often being tasked with duties that he was never capable of carrying out.

In simple terms, McTominay seems more suited to the role of 'box crasher', where he is granted the freedom to roam and enter the penalty area at his discretion, and he appears to have the intuition to know exactly when to pop up and stick a head or leg in.

The Red Devils Academy graduate has flourished on the international scene, scoring 11 goals in 54 caps - seven of which came in the Tartan Army's successful Euro 2024 qualification campaign, where only Cristiano Ronaldo (10), Kylian Mbappe (nine) and Harry Kane (eight) struck more times than him.

McTominay was on target in each of Scotland's Nations League defeats to Poland (2-3) and Portugal (1-2) earlier this month and scored seven Premier League goals last season before netting once at the summer European Championship in Germany.

He now has the chance to make himself a hero in Naples, and what better way to start than by netting your first goal against the Old Lady?

Offers

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