Juventus
NapoliJuventus vs Napoli used to be the game that decided where the Scudetto was going. On Sunday 1 November it is eighth against ninth, and the most interesting question in Turin might be whether both coaches are still in their jobs by kick-off. Luciano Spalletti won a title for Napoli. Massimiliano Allegri won five for Juventus. Now each is in charge of the other club, and neither is having much fun.
The game starts at 20:45 in Italy, 19:45 in the UK and 14:45 Eastern in the US, where the clocks go back that morning.
11 points against 10
After seven rounds Juventus have 11 points and Napoli have 10. Inter and Lazio, the joint leaders, have 19. That gap is already eight points for Juventus and nine for Napoli, before Halloween.
Here is how the two sides compare so far.
| Juventus | Napoli | |
|---|---|---|
| Serie A position after 7 games | 8th | 9th |
| Points | 11 | 10 |
| Won-drawn-lost | 3-2-2 | 3-1-3 |
| Goals for and against | 9 and 8 | 10 and 7 |
| Finish in 2025/26 | 6th, 69 points | 2nd, 76 points |
| Coach | Luciano Spalletti | Massimiliano Allegri |
Napoli's defence is actually the better of the two on paper. Their problem is putting the ball in the net, which brings us to Venice.
| # | Team | P | GD | Pts | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 |  Frosinone | 7 | 4 | 13 | WLWDW |
| 7 |  Cagliari | 7 | -1 | 13 | LDWWW |
| 8 |  Juventus | 7 | 1 | 11 | LDWLD |
| 9 |  Napoli | 7 | 3 | 10 | LWDWL |
| 10 |  Torino | 7 | 1 | 10 | WWDLW |
| 11 |  Atalanta | 7 | -1 | 9 | LWLLL |
29 shots, 2.44 expected goals, no goal
Napoli lost 1-0 at Venezia on 17 October, to a side that had not taken a single point all season. Akor Adams scored early in the second half, Filip Stanković saved a Kevin De Bruyne penalty, and Napoli finished with 29 shots and 2.44 expected goals. Allegri pointed to those numbers afterwards. Most Napoli fans pointed at the scoreline.
That made it five defeats in nine games in all competitions. According to Opta, it is Napoli's worst start since 2001-02, when they were in Serie B under Luigi De Canio and had two wins, two draws and five defeats from their first nine. Allegri then missed training the day after the Venezia game with flu, which did nothing to calm the speculation. La Gazzetta dello Sport reported that Allegri's future would be at risk without a quick turnaround, with a must-win Champions League game against Bodø/Glimt and a home match against Roma coming before this trip.
It is a sharp fall for a club that finished second last season on 76 points. Antonio Conte left by mutual consent in May, and Allegri came in during July. Rasmus Højlund, with 12 league goals last term, and De Bruyne are still there. On the evidence so far, nobody has worked out how to turn possession into goals.
0-3 at home to Lazio
Juventus have their own crisis. They were beaten 3-0 at home by Lazio on 18 October, with Spalletti watching from the stands because of a touchline ban after an altercation with Cagliari coach Fabio Pisacane. He called his side "inferior" afterwards and said he was surprised by the performance. Captain Gleison Bremer went further and questioned his teammates' character.
The numbers are not kind to Spalletti. Juventus have scored only nine league goals in seven games, and they are one point worse off than at the same stage last season under Igor Tudor, who had three wins, three draws and one defeat at this point and was still sacked after the eighth round, following a 1-0 loss to Lazio. Spalletti has just lost to Lazio too, by three. Il Sole 24 Ore wrote after the weekend that both Spalletti's and Allegri's jobs were on the line.
There is one big excuse. Kenan Yildiz, who scored 14 goals and made 10 assists last season, had surgery on a fractured metatarsal in August and has played 69 minutes all season. Spalletti, who has compared him to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, is not expecting him back before December.
5 titles and 1 Scudetto: the coaching swap
This is the bit that makes the fixture more fun than the table suggests. Allegri won five Serie A titles in a row at Juventus between 2015 and 2019 and later had a second spell there. Spalletti delivered Napoli's 2023 Scudetto, their first in 33 years, before leaving and later taking the Italy job and then Juventus.
That 2023 side won the league by 16 points and played some of the most entertaining football Serie A had seen in years.
So Allegri walks back into the Allianz Stadium as the visiting coach, against the man who once built the best Napoli side in a generation. Neither of them would choose to meet the other in these circumstances.
JuventusNapoliJuventus vs Napoli: what last season's meetings tell us
Last season the home side won both. Napoli beat Juventus 2-1 in Naples on 7 December 2025, and Juventus returned the favour with a 3-0 win in Turin on 25 January 2026, with goals from Jonathan David, Yildiz and Filip Kostić (ESPN's match report has the details). Napoli went on to finish second anyway, while Juventus ended up sixth.
That is a small sample, and both squads have changed a lot since, so I wouldn't lean on it too hard.
1-1 feels about right
Both sides have two more league games before this one, starting with Napoli at home to Roma on 24 October and Juventus at Lecce the next day. If either loses again, there could be a new coach in the dugout here. Assuming not, I expect a nervy game between two teams who are more worried about losing than keen to win. Napoli create more than they finish and Juventus are short of attacking ideas without Yildiz. I'll go 1-1.
In Italy, DAZN carries every Serie A game. UK viewers will find Serie A on DAZN and TNT Sports, while Paramount+ has all 380 matches in the US and Peacock streams them in Spanish. DAMITV will also show Juventus vs Napoli free in HD, no account needed, through our Serie A streams. Fans of either club can bookmark the Juventus and Napoli pages, and if you are planning the whole weekend, the Milan derby the night before has its own AC Milan vs Inter preview.
