Antonio Conte believes that Napoli from their Champions League defeat against Manchester City will come stronger, while they return to the Serie A promotion against Pisa on Monday.
Napoli has made a perfect start of the 2025-26 League season and so far won all three of their Serie A matches A, while he has only admitted one goal in the process.
Although they went out of the top position after Juventus’ draw on Saturday, the Partenopei want to return to the top by bouncing back from their midweek allocation.
Napoli made a losing start of their Champions League campaign thanks to a 2-0 defeat against City, with Giovanni di Lorenzo’s first half Red Card who played his role.
However, Conte was determined to take the positives out of that result and believes that it will help them build their resilience.
“I think we can get out of the game stronger,” he said. “I think you saw our plan in the first 20 minutes.
“The impression I had was that when we had the ball, we could hurt man city.
“I have to get the positives out of it. I get the positives from those 70 minutes, in which we played 10 against 11 against a top team.
“We know that we had a great sense of self -sacrifice, a lot of determination, a great desire. We did not want to give up, we did not want to say that the defeat is inevitable.”
They are then confronted with a PISA side that has collected only one point in the Serie A this season and only scored once, which came through their own goal.
Pisa has never won in 14 previous top matches against the ruling champions (D4 L10).
Napoli is again in the fight for the trophy, although Scott McTominay, a key figure in their Scudetto Triumph last season, says it is too early to think about the Serie A Title Battle.
‘[Conte’s] An incredible coach, he always helps us to give us our best. Our strength is our mind and courage, “McTominay told Rai.
“It is too early to say who the strongest is; thinking about the future can be losing the focus.”
Players to watch
It is a Hoo – a Cavet Belowlow.
Kevin De Bruyne played the most through the Serie A this season (seven), at least three more than any other player (Youssouf Fofana – four).
The Belgian, who had to be immersed early against Man City while Conte shuffled his pack after he went to 10 men, scored a penalty against Fiorentina last weekend, his first spot kick goal in one of the Big Five European competitions since December 2020 (VS Fulham in the Premier League).
He now wants to score for the first time since October 2022 (against Brighton and Leicester City) in successive competition performances.
Site – M’is
M’bala Nzola’s last Serie A-goal came against Napoli, in a 2-2 home game for Fiorentina on May 17, 2024.
That match was also the last start of the Angolan Striker in the Italian top flight (he has made three league games so far as a replacement for Pisa and only manages one shot during that run).
Match -Forecast: Napoli Win
Napoli and Pisa have confronted each other 14 times in the Serie A, with six victories for the first and three for the Tuscans (D5).
In particular, Napoli is unbeaten in their last six games against Pisa and won four of those games (D2).
Napoli is unbeaten in six of their seven home games against Pisa in the Serie A (W4 D2) and won the most recent, although that was in September 1990 (2-1). Since 1969 and 1983 they have no longer defeated them in successive home competitions.
The partenopei is at home regardless of a force after he won six of their last seven games in the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in the Serie A (D1), with only four goals in the process.
Napoli is currently even enjoying the longest undefeated series in Europe’s top five competitions: 15 consecutive games, including 10 victories and five draw. They want to win five consecutive Series A matches for the third time under Conte.
In the case of a defeat, Pisa would not be more than one point after the first four games that were played for the third time in their last four participation in the top division in a Serie A season, after 1987-88 (0) and 1988-89 (one).
Opta wins probability
Napoli – 71.8%
Drawing – 16.8%
Pisa – 11.4%
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