Napoli trail Juventus by ten points in the Serie A and are also out of the Champions League, which makes Coppa Italia, the only realistic chance of silverware this season. However, the task is uphill as they lost 1-3 to Juventus, who are still in the CL, in the first leg of the semifinal, and will be keen to turn results in their favour in the reverse fixture on Wednesday.
Defeating Juventus, irrespective of any competition, has become a tough job for Italian sides this season, but Napoli will derive huge confidence from their last head-to-head Serie A game encounter on Sunday, which finished in 1-1 draw. Napoli, to be fair, were unlucky to collect three points after a fine display.
If Napoli can come up with a similar performance once against Juve, one could be in for a cracker of a contest. They will need their star players including Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne and Merek Hamsik to deliver the goods and score the much-needed goals for them to qualify.
Napoli will need to win by two clear goals to march into the finals of the Coppa Italia and Lazio. Besides scoring goals, Napoli will also need to be solid at the back and contain the likes of Gonzalo Higuain, who is set for a hostile reception after he left Napoli for Juventus, and Paulo Dybala.
The duo will play a central role for Juventus. Even if Lazio scores one away goal, the task becomes much more difficult for the home team. There is no doubt, Juventus will aim to seal their finals spot, but are aware of the strong team in the form of Napoli.
Juventus will need to make a marked improvement from their game, which they played against Napoli on Sunday. The Serie A table-toppers could not really get into the game much and Juventus manager Massimilliano Allegri, visitors manager, wants his team to deliver the goods and reach yet another Coppa Italia final.
"It won't be easy and we're expecting a very open encounter tomorrow. Napoli made life tough for us at the weekend, but we've got what it takes to progress to the next round," Juventus official website quoted Allegri as saying.
"We'll need to play a better a game this time from technical standpoint, because we made too many mistakes on Sunday. We'll also need to score to be sure of reaching the final. We may be leading the tie 3-1, but we can't afford to rest on our laurels."
Juventus are aiming to win their third straight title, but before that they need to dump Napoli, and show their skills against Lazio to win the title. But, Napoli, who won the title in 2014, will be looking to break their winning chain.
Where to watch live
Napoli vs Juventus Coppa Italia semifinals is set for 6:45pm GMT, 2:45pm EST, 12:15am IST start. Here are live streaming and TV options.
India: No live coverage
Italy: TV - RAI Uno.
UK: TV - Sky Sports 5/HD, Now TV. Live streaming: Sky Go.
USA: TV - Gol TV, fubo TV.
Live score: Twitter
