Aiming to extend their advantage at the top of Serie A to an extraordinary 21 points, Napoli host southern rivals Lazio on Friday evening.

After winning a fifth straight away game in the league without conceding a single goal, the Scudetto favourites return to Stadio Maradona, where their visitors will target victory to stay in good shape for a top-four finish.

Napoli’s seemingly inevitable march towards their first Serie A (SA) title since 1989/90 continued with a 2-0 win at Empoli on Saturday which extended their lead at the top of the table to 18 points. Such has been their dominance in recent weeks that following their eighth consecutive league victory, prediction analysts Opta now give them a 99.9% chance of winning the title!

Now 14 matches since the Partenopei’s last home league defeat (W12, D2), that percentage is unlikely to drop any time soon as they’ve won each of the last six H2Hs against Lazio here. With Napoli scoring an average of four goals per game across the last three of those meetings, manager Luciano Spalletti must be confident of improving his personal H2H record against opposite number Maurizio Sarri (W5, D2, L1).

Sarri was happy with Lazio’s Monday night 1-0 win over Sampdoria which guaranteed they’ll start this contest in the top five, and they’re hitting form at the right time as they chase European qualification (W3, D2, L1). He admitted they weren’t at their best when recently drawing 0-0 at Cluj in the UEFA Europa Conference League (Feb 23), but said he “liked the team overall”.

Keeping it tight and striking late seems to be Lazio’s blueprint for success, as they’ve kept a first-half clean sheet in 20 of their 24 league games this term – nobody across Europe’s top-five leagues has done so more often.

So if anybody can stop the in-form Napoli frontline, it could be the visitors, as only Napoli have conceded as few goals (seven) in league away action as Lazio have this term.

Players to watch: By scoring against Empoli, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen netted in his eighth consecutive SA appearance and he might be eyeing the record jointly held by Gabriel Batistuta, Fabio Quagliarella and Cristiano Ronaldo (11).

Sarri was full of praise for Luis Alberto (LAZ) after his goal against Sampdoria, his sixth consecutive league strike to arrive after the 55th minute.

Hot stat: There were goals during both halves in five of the last six H2Hs (Napoli: W5, L1).

Napoli Serie A form:

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Napoli form (all competitions):

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Lazio Serie A form:

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Lazio form (all competitions):

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Napoli possible starting lineup:

Meret; Di Lorenzo, Kim, Rrahmani, Olivera; Anguissa, Lobotka, Elmas; Politano, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia

Lazio possible starting lineup:

Provedel; Marusic, Romagnoli, Patric, Hysaj; Milinkovic-Savic, Cataldi, Alberto; Anderson, Immobile, Zaccagni

Friday’s game poses one of the sternest tests awaiting Napoli on the road to their coronation as Serie A champions. Despite being a boyhood fan of the Partenopei, Sarri will go all out to get the better of Spalletti, but is still set to come up just short against one of Europe’s top teams.