Serie A, Week 11: Juventus dominate, Roma impress

The 23-year-old Neapolitan will now undergo surgery, and will hope to be back for the start of the next season. However, that is the best case scenario, and it’s possible he’ll be out for a little longer. It’s a crushing blow for both Insigne, and Napoli.

The goal left El Shaarawy in tears of joy and relief, and left the rossoneri praying that he’s finally getting back to his best after well over a season tarnished by persistent injury problems.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long after Balotelli’s arrival that El Shaarawy’s goals dried up. That can be partly explained in tactical terms, with the presence of a natural striker up top no longer leaving space for El Shaarawy to cut inside off the left flank and curl the ball inside the far post, as he seemed to like doing so often. However, it wasn’t long before injuries also started to cause even bigger problems for the young attacker.

Fiorentina - Napoli may not seem like a grudge match to most, but there’s a chance the hosts will be smarting after last season. The two sides contested the Coppa Italia final, which was overshadowed by a tragic event, the shooting of a Napoli fan by a Roma ultra before the match. Inside Rome’s stadium there was chaos, with the Napoli fans protesting against the game going ahead. The match finally kicked off under a thick haze of smoke and distress, and Napoli ultimately beat Fiorentina 3-1.

Napoli went on to finish third, Fiorentina fourth -- missing out on the Champions League once again. This season, both sides have struggled. The viola have barely managed to find the back of the net, and as a result, are languishing in 10th, and are coming off a 3-1 loss to Sampdoria last weekend. But while Napoli had a difficult start to the season, they’ve revived themselves in recent weeks, and after beating Roma 2-0 in the last round will be flying quite high.

Samp saw plenty of the ball after falling behind, but struggled to convert their control of possession into any real goalscoring chances. That was until the game started to even out midway through the first half, when Éder was denied by an excellent diving stop from Diego López.

The second half started with a bang, with Sampdoria taking the lead for the first time just six minutes after the restart. A corner was powerfully headed goalwards by Okaka, and his teammate Éder was on hand to tap home a rebound after an excellent initial save from López.