The two teams most likely to challenge Juventus for the Serie A title will battle it out for three points on Saturday. Napoli and Roma have made strong starts to the new Italian season, but they already find themselves four and five points behind Juventus, which means getting a victory in Naples will be paramount for both sides.
Napoli and Roma were both stripped off their star players by the Italian champions in the summer, with the team from Naples losing Gonzalo Higuain while the capital side were forced to sell their gifted playmaker Miralem Pjanic.
They have done well, though, by still competing in the league and while the Serie A title may well be beyond them, both will be determined to run Juventus as close as possible.
"It is an important game," Roma manager Luciano Spalletti said. "It's an opportunity to write our own future and the only way to do that is by doing things well, showing our qualities and getting the result.
"There will be other big matches to come, but your ability to match Juventus step-by-step increases or decreases based on how you come out of these fixtures. It will be a great occasion and we have to make sure we're ready."
Juventus lead the table at the moment with 18 points from seven matches, while Napoli have 14 to Roma's 13. A win for either team will put the pressure on Juve, who play Udinese later on Saturday.
While Roma have won their last three Serie A matches, including a 2-1 result over Inter Milan just before the international break, Napoli come into this game on the back of a shock defeat to Atalanta. So bouncing back in impressive fashion will be the plan for the home team.
"We're coming off a bad performance, so it is an important game for us," Napoli manager Maurizio Sarri said. "Roma are very good in attack, so it's a complicated game.
"We absolutely have to grow in these games, we have to manage games better but this is a young squad and maybe these mistakes will happen. We have to get into the mindset of considering all games to be equal."
Where to Watch Live
Napoli vs Roma is set to begin at 6.30pm IST (3pm CET, 2pm BST, 9am ET).
India: Live Streaming: Sonyliv.
Italy: TV: Sky Calcio and Sky Sport 1. Live Streaming: Sky Go Italy.
USA, Australia and Canada: TV: Rai International.
Middle East: TV: Bein Sports Arabia 4. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
