Lecce vs Napoli Prediction: Tasty 12/5 punt says champs will be spot on

League leaders Napoli get the opportunity to put some pressure on their chasers in Serie A on Tuesday when they begin the midweek round with a trip to Lecce’s Stadio Via del Mare (18:30 local, 17:30 GMT, live on Betfred.com and TNT Sports 1).

The Partenopei are coming off a statement 3-1 victory over Inter Milan at the Maradona, but they lost the services of Kevin De Bruyne on the way. Below are my Lecce vs Napoli predictions, the latest team news and Betfred’s match odds.

Team News

Lecce boss Eusebio Di Francesco will be looking for more of the fighting spirit which saw his side push Udinese until the last on Saturday.

He is without Gaby Jean, Riccardo Sottil, Lassana Coulibaly and Matias Perez for the time being, while a late decision will be made on the fitness of Kialonda Gaspar.

Santi Pierotti, Nikola Stulic and Tete Morente should lead the line in a 4-3-3 formation.

For Napoli, De Bruyne is absent for the next couple of months with the hamstring injury he suffered in scoring a penalty on Saturday. The Belgian is just one of a host of missing stars.

Romelu Lukaku is still out with a thigh problem, while Alex Meret, Amir Rrahmani, Nikita Contini, Rasmus Hojlund and Stanislav Lobotka will be out for the foreseeable.

Mathias Olivera came on for De Bruyne against Inter, but he is likely to be on the bench once more. Eljif Elmas and Lorenzo Lucca should start, with David Neres sitting it out.

Lecce vs Napoli Odds

The champions are huge favourites, with a win in 90 minutes for Napoli priced at 1/2 by Betfred.

Lecce are a 6/1 chance, implying a 14.3% chance of the Salentini grabbing a second victory of the season. The draw is 3/1.

Lucca is the 7/2 favourite to score the first goal of the match, with teammates Giuseppe Ambrosino at 9/2 and Scott McTominay 5/1.

Today's Football Fixtures

Handicap -1: Napoli -1 @ 6/4

While they’d had a bit of a rocky patch leading up to the game, Saturday’s win over Inter showed what Napoli are all about.

Sure, they benefited from a (very) dubious penalty award to take the lead, but in the second half they showed their quality with two excellent goals and they could have had more.

Up against far inferior opposition on Tuesday night, they should have more than enough to extend their lead at the top for at least 24 hours.

They are missing their two first-choice number nines but have plenty of attacking intent from the middle of the park to aid Lucca in breaking down a low Lecce block.

I fancy another two-goal victory, and the 6/4 available on the handicap market gives us a bit of leeway.

Football Odds

Will A Penalty Be Awarded? Yes @ 12/5

This is not normally the first market I look at, but there have now been five penalties in Napoli’s eight games in Serie A.

Lecce should also spend much of the time defending in their own box, so there’s bound to be some desperation involved in the tackling.

Napoli have shown with their passing stats so far this term that they can keep the ball away from opponents for long spells, so I expect them to make plenty of inroads into the home area.

At 12/5, this is a decent punt which carries a 29.4% implied probability.

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