Naples and Lille will face each other on 21 December at 20:00 at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium in what will be the Neapolitans' last friendly before the restart of official competitions.
The Neapolitans come from a bad time defeat against Villareal and they have to give it their all to be able to show that they haven't lost the phenomenal pace they have shown up to this point in the season.
Here's our pre-match analysis and injury status.
State of form of Napoli
Napoli is currently first in the Serie A standings. With 41 points he manages to keep Milan at a distance of 8 points, second in the standings with 33 points.
Over the last 5 matches, Napoli collected 4 victories and 1 defeat. In total, the Neapolitans have scored 13 goals and conceded 8. The Napoli defense has been inattentive and, in fact, only in one of the last five games has it managed to keep its clean sheet.
The last match played by Napoli was resolved with a 2-3 victory for Villareal. The defense was inattentive and the blue formation a little down. A drop can happen, but the habit of conceding goals is becoming a constant.
Among absent there will certainly be the injured Rrahmani. For now, none of the players involved in the world expedition seem to have returned.
Form of Lille
Lille occupies the seventh position in Ligue 1. The French have 26 points and are 2 points away from the Conference League area.
Despite Lille conceding 23 goals in 15 league games, the last 5 matches (including 4 friendlies) the French team managed to keep its clean sheet on 4 occasions, conceding only 2 goals and scoring 8. In the last 5 meetings, Lille has totaled 4 wins and 1 draw.
The French will not be able to count on Gudmundsson, who is currently injured.
Napoli – Lille: which is the favorite team
Until recently we could have said with certainty that Napoli, at least on paper, were the favorites in a match like this. Currently, however, we cannot do this.
During the last friendlies, Spalletti's boys have conceded far too many goals and they have proven time and time again that they cannot maintain concentration. Lille, on the other hand, managed to put into practice an excellent defensive phase, which will certainly be a tough nut to crack for the Neapolitans.
Naples will have to demonstrate that you have learned from your mistakes and he must be good at staying focused for the entirety of the match.
