Parma vs. Napoli 7/22/20 Serie A Soccer Prediction and Picks

Parma hosts Napoli in Serie A soccer action from Stadio Ennio Tardini on Wednesday afternoon.

Parma comes into this match in 14th place on 40 points with a record of 11 wins, 7 draws and 16 losses following a 3-2 loss to Sampdoria that pushed their winless run to seven games last time out. In the loss to Sampdoria, Gervinho opened the scoring in the 18th minute and Parma were denied a second goal six minutes later after VAR overturned Parma’s doubler when an offside player was discovered in the buildup to the goal. A Sampdoria own goal would give Parma their second goal before the half, but in the second half, things would come unglued for Parma. Sampdoria got on the board in the 48th minute and would tie the game and take the lead with goals nine minutes apart in the 69th and 78th minutes of play. Parma would have their chances late on, but in the end it wouldn’t be enough as Parma were sent crashing to yet another defeat. Andreas Cornelius leads Parma in scoring with 11 goals while Dejan Kulusevski and Gervinho each have 7 goals with Kulusevski having a team-high 7 assists this season.

Napoli on the other hand, sit in 6th place on 56 points with a record of 16 wins, 8 draws and 10 losses following a 2-1 win over Udinese last time out. In the win over Udinese, Napoli fell behind in the 22nd minute but Napoli would equalize just nine minutes later. The tie would hold into the half and for most of the second half, appearing headed for a score draw but Matteo Politano would net the game-winner in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time. Arkadiusz Milik leads Napoli with 11 goals while Dries Mertens has 9 goals with 4 assists and Lorenzo Insigne has 6 goals and 6 assists. Jose Callejon has a team-high 7 assists for Napoli this season.

The concern for me with Napoli is that they’re dealing with injuries as Milik and Llorente are both expected to miss this match. The problem for Parms is that they’ve been brutal since the restart, picking up just 5 of a possible 27 points, including just one of a potential 21 points during this seven game winless run. Napoli has a lot more to play for and have just been in better form than Parma. I’d like to take Napoli to win but the ML is too steep, so since all of Parma’s nine games since the restart and six of Napoli’s last seven games have seen both teams score, I’ll back Napoli to win with both teams to score at big plus money.