Udinese vs Napoli Full Match 2022-23

With just six Serie A (SA) games remaining, Udinese epitomise the position lots of teams tend to find themselves in at this stage of the season as they simply have nothing left to play for. Whilst it would maybe be unfair to suggest they’re already ‘on the beach’, that statement perhaps isn’t too inaccurate, as their 1-0 defeat to a struggling Lecce on Friday night would suggest.

That was a third successive away league defeat without scoring for Udinese, who should be relieved to return home where they are unbeaten in six SA outings (W2, D4). Any optimism drawn from that run is surely dampened when they see champions-elect Napoli are next to visit, and that largely owes to the fact Udinese haven’t won a H2H since April 2016 (D1, L13 since).

Lazio’s defeat against Inter Milan in Sunday’s earlier kick-off opened up the chance for Napoli to win the Scudetto against Salernitana later in the day, but a 1-1 draw ensured they will have to wait just a little longer to officially end their 33 year drought. Napoli will have the advantage of knowing what will be required of them following Lazio’s game against Sassuolo the previous evening, with the potential heading into this round that they may not even need to collect any more points to claim the title.

If Napoli’s recent away league form is anything to go by, then their fate should be sealed here considering they’ve clocked up eight successive SA wins on the road, a run that’s made all the more remarkable by the fact Luciano Spalletti’s side conceded just once across all eight games. Napoli haven’t quite been as watertight in Thursday-held SA away games though, securing just one shut-out from their last six such games (W1, D2, L3).

Players to watch: A man for home comforts, Udinese’s Beto has scored in three of their last four home league outings, levelling the score in two of those. Meanwhile, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen opened the scoring in the reverse fixture and has interestingly netted four of his last five goals with headers.

Hot stat: Napoli are the only SA side not to have trailed an away league game at half-time this season (HT: W9, D7).