Our prediction for this Serie A match:
After playing out a thrilling 3-3 draw with Sassuolo on Wednesday, Napoli will be looking to return to winning ways in the Serie A when they welcome Bologna at their Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. The Neapolitans are a real force to be reckoned with at home, with the team eyeing their fifth consecutive triumph on home soil. Important defender Koulibaly returns from suspension, while all Osimhen, Petagna, and Lozano are likely to miss the game with injuries.
Sinisa Mihajlovic’s troops, on the other hand, aim to bounce back from a 1-0 loss to Cagliari. Bologna, though, are not regarded as good travellers, and we do not believe that they are capable of spoiling Napoli’s party at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Danilo returns from suspension, while Farago, Dijks, Hickey, Tomiyasu, Baldursson, and Santander are all likely to miss the match through injuries.
Highlighted Player (Dries Mertens):
Dries Mertens is a Belgian football player born on the 6th of May 1987 in Leuven. Mertens started his football career in the youth of RSC Anderlecht and AA Gent. In season 2005/2006 he made his debut for the first team of AA Gent.
After playing for AGOVV, FC Utrecht and PSV Mertens got transferred to Napoli for approximately 9.5 million euro. Mertens made his debut for the Belgian national team in October 2010 and played over 40 games for the national team already. Mertens played during World Cup 2014 and EURO 2016 for Belgium.
Mertens is a right attacking midfielder, which can play as a forward as well. Mertens is known for being a very small fast player, which has the ability to get past several defenders and deliver a cross to his team mates. In his career Mertens didn’t win any big prizes yet. The biggest achievements of Mertens are winning the Dutch national cup with PSV in 2011/2012, the Coppa Italia and the Supercoppa in 2014 with Napoli.
Highlighted Team (Bologna):
Bologna FC 1909 is an Italian football club founded in 1909 and playing in the Serie A. The club hosts its games in the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara which holds a capacity of 40500 seats. The stadium is named after their former chairman. The club plays its home games in the Stadio Renato Dall’Ara since 1927.
The club colors of Bologna are blue and red and is one of the most successful football clubs in Italy winning the Serie A 7times and the Coppa Italia 2 times in the clubs history. Lately Bologna is not performing like their glory times anymore. The club is often relegated to the Serie B but manages to get back to the Serie A on and off. Another important person in the club is Joey Saputo, Canadian but with Italian roots, which is owner of Bologna.
Well known football players that wore the blue red colors of Bologna in their career are: Falcone, Dokovic, Nakata, Gillet, Pagliuca, Vieri and Zagorakis.