Napoli vs Cesena
Football : Italy : Seria A
Venue: Stadio Sao Paolo, Napoli
Wednesday 1st February – Kickoff time: 20:45 GMT+1

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Napoli (7th W-7 D-8 L-5)

Napoli was close to make another superb comeback in the dying minutes of their away match against Genoa, but they couldn’t repeat the great second half performance against Steaua Bucuresti in the Europa League when they equalized after being 3-0 down and eventually lost the game (3-2).

Rodrigo Palacio scored one of the best goals I’ve ever seen to put Genoa 1-0 up, a lead that eventually extended to 3 facilitated by Napoli’s shaky defense, but Cavani and Lavezzi gave some hope for the Sicilians late in the game only to lose the match by one goal.

Napoli are not in great shape when playing at home either, they’ve only won two of their last six games, being held by Bologna in their previous one. Napoli is only 11th on the home league table, which is quite disappointing considering that they were 4th in the previous season winning 12 out of 19 games.

Ezequiel Lavezzi is suspended for this game so there should be no surprises in the attacking trio for this game, which will be led by Cavani with Hamsik and Pandev in his support. Fernendez will be likely to replace injured Cannavaro in the defense.


Probable Napoli line-up :

De Sanctis
Campagnaro, Fernandez, Aronica
Maggio, Inler, Gargano, Dossena
Hamsik, Pandev
Cavani

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Cesena (19th W-4 D-3 L-13)

A Marco Rossi own goal handed 10-man Atalanta a narrow win at Cesena on Sunday and it looks like Arrigoni’s team doesn’t have what it takes to avoid relegation this season.

It is exactly this kind of opportunities that they are expected to take in order to win points. Playing at home with the opponent being one man down and still losing the game because of an own-goal shows lack of character and confidence.

Cesena announced that they’ve loaned striker Eder Martins to Sampdoria (Serie B), which is a decision that I can hardly understand. Cesena only scored 13 goals this season in 20 games and yet they sell a striker without bringing a replacement is odd to say at least. Yes, there are rumors about Juve’s forward Iaquinta joining them, but theese are just speculations.


Probable Cesena line-up :

Antonioli
Comotto, Bergen, Moras, Rossi
Guana, Colucci, Parolo
Ceccarelli, Rennella, Mutu

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The Betting Verdict

Cesena’s last three games on the road were a total fiasco, losing all by at least three goals, conceding 13. They played so bad that at the half time of the match against Roma, striker Adrian Mutu asked his coach to replace him because there’s nothing he can do to help the team.

Napoli is not playing great, but at least they are scoring goals, they have an average of 3 goals/match on their last 5 home games and I expect them to at least keep up the rhythm in this match against a team that is in major difficulty.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Napoli 3-1 Cesena

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Over 2.5 goals at 1.84 at Pinnacle
Confidence: 7/10