Napoli travel to Parma on Sunday for a Serie A meeting at Stadio Ennio Tardini that carries more weight for the visitors than the hosts. Parma are winless in five league games, but Napoli arrive in Emilia-Romagna on a five-match winning streak and are expected to take a routine victory.
The game comes in the 32nd gameweek and at a moment when Napoli cannot afford to let their momentum slip. A win would stretch their run to six and keep their slim Scudetto prospects moving, even with Inter Milan seven points clear ahead of this weekend's fixtures.
Parma are not in immediate danger, but their task is made harder by absences in attack. They are without their leading scorer and may also be missing their second top marksman, leaving them short of the firepower they would normally need to trouble one of the league's challengers.
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That is the sharp edge to this fixture: Napoli are chasing the points that can keep pressure on the top of Serie A, while Parma are trying to stop a poor spell from becoming worse. On paper, the visitors have the form, the incentive and the expectation on their side.
