Italian Serie A Week 20: Napoli Host Fiorentina Before Bologna Visit Inter Milan

Let’s clear something up before we start Week 20 of Serie A: I am not a neutral. I’ll do my best to provide non-biased coverage, but when you love a team like Napoli, it’s really quite difficult to not exhaust 500 words on Marek Hamšík’s hair alone (hey, I need something to do when the man isn’t playing).

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s move on to the matches. Napoli start us off at the San Paulo, hosting tenth-place Fiorentina. The Viola were down 2-0 to Brescia last week at halftime before scoring three in the last twenty minutes to win 3-2, and are likely hoping some of that adrenaline holds through to this weekend. Napoli, meanwhile, are certainly no stranger to last-minute goals, although last week against Juventus saw Edinson Cavani’s hat-trick complete before the 60th minute.

Fiorentina, once again missing Adrian Mutu, this time to a severe attitude problem, will be fielding the pacy Khouma Babacar instead. Riccardo Montolivo, recently returned from injury, could be a danger. As for Napoli, they’ll be missing the aforementioned Hamšík’, sitting out a one match ban. While many think the Slovak hasn’t been having the best season, he was instrumental last match, creating plenty of space for the Napoli attack and setting up Cavani’s third goal. Jose Sosa, who will start in his place, won’t be such a threat to the visiting defense.

Bologna travel to the San Siro to face Inter Milan in Saturday’s second match. While Napoli are scorching up Serie A at the moment, Inter’s revival certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed. The Nerazzurri have yet to lose since Leonardo took the helm - yet Bologna are undefeated in their last three away matches. Were it not for the two-point hit the Rossoblu took this week, they’d be in tenth, mostly due to their strength in defense, not their ability to score goals.