{"id":17935,"date":"2023-04-20T14:21:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:21:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/soccer-stuttering-juve-face-napoli\/"},"modified":"2023-04-20T14:37:55","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T14:37:55","slug":"soccer-stuttering-juve-face-napoli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/soccer-stuttering-juve-face-napoli\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer-Stuttering Juve face Napoli test as they look to get back on track"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tommy Lund<\/p>\n

(Reuters) – Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri will be hoping his team’s recent Serie A slump is a blip rather than a sign they are slipping out of the race for the top six when they host runaway leaders Napoli on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Allegri’s seventh-placed side have lost ground on the European places in the last two weeks after back-to-back defeats to Lazio and Sassuolo and are up against a Napoli team that will be smarting from their Champions League exit.<\/p>\n

Juve are awaiting a ruling by Italy’s top sports body over the club’s appeal against a decision by soccer authorities to dock them 15 points this season following an investigation into the club’s transfer dealings.<\/p>\n

If their appeal succeeded and the points penalty was cancelled, they would jump to third on 59 points. <\/p>\n

Napoli have one win in their last five games, a run that includes league and Champions League defeats to AC Milan, and are winless in their last three games in all competitions.<\/p>\n

They head to Turin with injury doubts over several players, including Mario Rui, Amir Rrahmani and Matteo Politano, while forward Giovanni Simeone is out with a thigh injury, but they can take comfort in their 14-point cushion over second-placed Lazio.<\/p>\n

Lazio will be the first of the top teams in action when they host 11th-placed Torino on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Maurizio Sarri’s men have cemented their hold on second place in recent weeks with four wins in a row and are currently five points ahead of AS Roma in third.<\/p>\n

Lazio will most likely be without Ciro Immobile after the striker fractured his rib and hurt his back in a car crash in Rome on Sunday. Sarri will also be without suspended midfielder Danilo Cataldi.<\/p>\n

Roma, who have tightened their grip on third place by opening up a three-point gap on AC Milan in fourth with three wins in a row, travel to an Atalanta side desperate to get back on track after two defeats and a draw in their past five matches.<\/p>\n

Simone Inzaghi’s fifth-placed Inter Milan take on an Empoli side that beat them 1-0 in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, while AC Milan host Lecce.<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk; Editing by Toby Davis)<\/p>\n

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By Tommy Lund (Reuters) – Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri will be hoping his team’s recent Serie A slump is a blip rather than a sign they are slipping out of the race for the top six when they host runaway leaders Napoli on Sunday. Allegri’s seventh-placed side have lost ground on the European places in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":17936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportSportsNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3J0NW-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17937,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17935\/revisions\/17937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}