On Dec. 7, 2025, Luciano Spalletti headed back to the stadium in which he led Napoli to one of their biggest triumphs in club history. It was easily the biggest fixture Spalletti was a part during his then-brief tenure as Juve manager, with the matchup between the defending champions and their former coach just part \u2014 albeit a large one \u2014 of the many narratives heading into the showdown in southern Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Forty-nine days later, Juventus and Napoli meet again.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
This time around, it\u2019s on Juve\u2019s home turf. And it comes at a time in which both teams are coming off very different kinds of results and performances midweek in the Champions League.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Juventus get a shot at revenge against the defending Serie A champions less than two months after Napoli handed the Bianconeri their first loss under Luciano Spalletti. Since then, Juve have lost just one other fixture \u2014 yeah, we won\u2019t talk much more about what happened last weekend \u2014 and have gotten within striking distance of Antonio Conte\u2019s squad. If not for that loss to Cagliari, Juventus would have entered this weekend\u2019s showdown in Turin with the chance to jump over Napoli in the Serie A standings. But because of it, Juve and Napoli are separated by four points in third and fifth place, respectively, entering Matchday 22 with the chance to take advantage of this head-to-head matchup as well as AC Milan heading to Rome to face Roma just a short time after the final whistle sounds at the Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It\u2019s a big weekend with four out of the top five facing each other. That comes after there was a short hope Friday night when Inter were trailing Pisa at the San Siro by a couple of goals. Then the Serie A leaders absolutely steamrolled the worst team in the league and scored six unanswered goals to extend their advantage over Milan and Napoli to six and nine points, respectively. (Not nice because it\u2019s Inter.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A lot like the first time when these two teams played last month, Napoli are extremely shorthanded. As much as having Romelu Lukaku back in the fold is a boost for Conte, the injury list in Naples is still extremely long \u2014 and with a host of major names still present. Napoli will be without Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Billy Gilmour, Amir Rrahmani, David Neres and Matteo Politano. And there might be a new name on that list, with goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic reportedly a doubt after suffering a muscle injury in training before the team left for Turin. They\u2019ve also shipped out summer signings Noa Lang and Lorenzo Lucca on loan deals within the past couple of days, meaning the limited depth they had is now even less plentiful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That is far from the ideal situation for Conte to try and deal with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Then again, Napoli were dealing with plenty of injuries when Juve headed to Naples seven weeks ago and that is something they were able to overcome when they claimed a 2-1 win over Spalletti\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
That, of course, had to do a decent amount with how Spalletti approached things from the onset \u2014 playing Kenan Yildiz as a false nine, seeing it backfire, watching Napoli take a lead and then never fully being able to recover from a brutal first-half performance despite Yildiz\u2019s best efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Spalletti, thankfully, hasn\u2019t repeated those same tactical mistakes from early December as Juve have put together a nice run of form following the loss to Napoli. And thanks to it, they\u2019ve been able to get close to the top four, if not actually be in the top four for a few days even with all of the teams in front of them being so compact. We\u2019ll just go ahead and note this piece of info from Juventus\u2019 website<\/a> ahead of Napoli\u2019s visit to Turin this weekend:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Since Luciano Spalletti\u2019s arrival as coach, the Bianconeri have picked up 24 points in Serie A \u2014 more than Napoli\u2019s 22, and bettered only by Milan (28) and Inter (31).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n So you gotta believe there might be a little shade and purpose in pointing that Juve have two more points than Napoli does since Spalletti, the man who ended a three-decade title drought in Naples, joined the most successful club in Italy. But it also speaks to the fact that Spalletti has righted the ship at Juventus. That is even with the loss to Napoli. That is even with the loss to Cagliari this past weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And facing Napoli, no matter how many players they currently have injured, will be a test of that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n More than it was seven weeks ago. This is a chance for Juventus, on their home turf, to get three hugely valuable points against a team that is four points in front of them in the Serie A standings. With Como absolutely stomping on Torino on Saturday, Juve will take the field on Sunday in sixth place. They beat Napoli, and they\u2019re right back on the tail of Conte\u2019s squad as they then tune into happens at the Olimpico on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is another one of those weekends where there\u2019s a chance for a good amount of help to come. But Juventus must first take care of their own business before thinking of all that. And against a team that they lost to just 49 days ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Big games call for big players to potentially do big player things. There is no bigger player on this Juventus squad right now than the young No. 10 who will have every single person in the Allianz Stadium on their edge of their seat every time he is on the ball come Sunday night.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yeah, it\u2019s exactly who you think I am talking about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We are sitting in late-January and Kenan Yildiz has already equaled his number of goals from the 2024-25 season. In that year, we saw the makings of a special player. This season, that has only continued, seemingly looking like he\u2019s on the cusp of stardom for a Juventus team that is desperate for that kind of building block.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now he gets another crack at Napoli. You know, the same club in which Yildiz gave Juve a glimmer of hope against after such a brutal opening 45 minutes the first time around last month in Naples.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yildiz has gotten past the dip in form he had at the beginning of Spalletti\u2019s tenure as manager. You look at what he is doing right now, you\u2019ll find very few instances of when he hasn\u2019t<\/strong><\/em> had some sort of goal contribution. Let\u2019s just go ahead and go back to the same Juventus website post that we referenced earlier:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kenan Yildiz has had a hand in 101 shots taken this season in Serie A \u2014 60 of his own and 41 chances created \u2014 fewer than only Nico Paz\u2019s 117. Yildiz has also hit the post more than any other player in the league this season (five times), as well as being the league\u2019s most-fouled player in the final third of the pitch.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n All of that is good, right?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Napoli will be far from full strength when Conte\u2019s squad walks out of the tunnel at the Allianz on Sunday. They will have players starting who don\u2019t normally start. They will be missing important players in just about every position group there is. They could very well be fielding a goalkeeper who lost his starting job earlier this season and hasn\u2019t played since September.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You know who likes to take advantage of those situations and create some (good) chaos on the field? That would be Kenan Yildiz, who has shown plenty of times already in his young career that he can certainly rise to the occasion during big games like this one most definitely is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When: <\/strong>Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Where:<\/strong> Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Official kickoff time:<\/strong> 6 p.m. local time in Italy and across Europe, 5 p.m. in the United Kingdom, 12 p.m. Eastern time, 11:45 a.m. Central time, 9 a.m. Pacific time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Television:<\/strong> TLN (Canada); Sky Sports Uno, Sky Sport Calcio, Sky Sport 251 (Italy).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Online\/Streaming:<\/strong> Paramount+<\/strong><\/a>, DAZN USA, Amazon Prime Video (United States); DAZN Canada; fuboTV Canada (Canada); DAZN UK (United Kingdom); DAZN Italia, Sky Go Italia (Italy).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Other live viewing options can be found here<\/strong><\/a>, and as always, you can also follow along with us live and all the stupid things we say on Bluesky<\/strong><\/a>. If you haven\u2019t already, join the community<\/strong><\/a> on Black & White & Read All Over, and join in the discussion below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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