Napoli vs Besiktas Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Napoli looked like potential challengers for the dominant Juventus for the Serie A title just a few weeks ago, but all that has changed now. Their unbeaten start to the season ended as they lost to Atalanta at the start of October, and that disappointment was swiftly followed by top scorer and £30 million new signing Arkadiusz Milik getting injured on duty with Poland. The striker is out until February with a cruciate ligament injury.

This quickfire run of catastrophes continued as they lost 3-1 at home to Roma at the weekend, sending them down to 3rd in Serie A with a four point deficit on leaders Juventus. With Milik now sidelined for the better part of the season they will have to call upon some of their other star players.

Napoli aren’t short of them to be fair. Jose Callejon has five Serie A goals this season and Dries Mertens and Marek Hamsik have seven between them in all competitions. With Milik now out, I expect Jose Callejon to step up to the plate and start banging in a few more, so I’d suggest that he will be key in this game.

The Italians Champions League campaign has started off in excellent fashion with wins over Dynamo Kiev and Benfica in the opening two matches. Another win here would put them in a commanding lead at the top of the group, and also help them overcome the disappointment of October so far.

Besiktas won’t be lying down for them though. They are unbeaten in normal time this season, with their only failure being a penalty loss to Galatasaray in the Turkish Super Cup. In the Champions League they have drawn against both Benfica and Dynamo Kiev, but they will be very aware of the fact that Napoli are a class apart in this group.

Despite Besiktas’ position at the top of the Turkish Super Lig, they haven’t actually looked very convincing this season. They have only won three of their 11 matches in all competitions by more than a single goal, and away from home that ratio slips to one in five.

Besiktas do rely heavily on striker Cenk Tosun, who has five Super Lig goals already this season. However, away from home he struggles to make an impact. He has only found the net once in their five away days so far this season, and that was back at the end of August in their first away game of the season. His last goal was almost a month ago in their 2-2 draw at home to Galatasaray as well, so he’s not a man in form at the moment.

It’s hard to look beyond Napoli for this one. There is a huge gulf in class between the sides and Besiktas’ main striker just doesn’t perform on the road. Despite the absence of Milik I think Napoli have enough about them to get a win here. I’m expecting it to be quite a high scoring match as well. Seven of the hosts ten games this season have seen at least three goals, whilst Besiktas have played out high scoring matches in half of their ten outings. Napoli will want to prove a point as they bounce back from their back to back defeats, so odds of 10/11 for a Napoli Win and Over 2.5 Goals look very good value to me. I’m backing a 3-1 correct score prediction at 10/1 as well.