By Trevor Stynes
(Reuters) – It is early days in Italy’s Serie A and champions Napoli are already on maximum points, but they face last season’s runners-up Lazio on Saturday in new manager Rudi Garcia’s first real test.
Last season, not even the runaway title winners won their opening three fixtures. Now, with wins over Frosinone and Sassuolo under their belt, Garcia is looking to improve on Luciano Spalletti’s impressive time at the club.
Spalletti has since taken over the Italy national side, but Garcia inherited a mostly unchanged squad. Defender Kim Min-jae was sold to Bayern Munich, but they held onto Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Osimhen was the top scorer in Serie A last season with 26 goals and has already scored three goals this campaign. Kvaratskhelia was voted the league’s best player in his first season in Italy.
Garcia was replaced by Spalletti on the AS Roma bench mid-season back in 2016. Before that, the French manager had never lost a derby game with Lazio and will now be expected to defeat Maurizio Sarri’s struggling side.
Lazio may have finished 16 points adrift of Napoli last season, but they were one of only two teams to come away from the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona with a win.
After finishing second, losses to a Lecce side which battled relegation last season and at home to promoted Genoa was not how this season was meant to begin for Lazio.
Sarri, however, was adamant that his team had shown improvement even in defeat.
“Two completely different matches. The one in Lecce was a game of apathy, this one (Genoa) we approached badly because of repercussions that the previous game left us,” Sarri explained after the game on Sunday.
“In the end, we played a good game, we didn’t give up… in some respects it’s a huge step forward compared to Lecce.”
Lazio are now without their midfield maestro Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who was sold to Al-Hilal after eight seasons with the club. It’s a big gap to fill, and it remains to be seen if Daichi Kamada, who joined in the close season after leaving Eintracht Frankfurt, is the man for the job.
For Lazio, who face a trip to Juventus after the international break, defeat in Naples could see them already lose touch in the Scudetto race.
MILAN, INTER LOOK TO KEEP PACE
AC Milan also won their opening two games and face AS Roma away on Friday.
Milan’s new American arrival Christian Pulisic is already a hit with the fans after scoring in his first two games while Tijjani Reijnders and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are helping them forget Sandro Tonali’s departure to Newcastle.
Jose Mourinho’s Roma are five points adrift of the leaders after a draw at home to Salernitana followed by defeat at Hellas Verona.
Paulo Dybala looks set to miss the match after going off injured at Verona. Already without long-term injury absentee Tammy Abraham the manager was desperate to sign a new striker.
Mourinho finally got his wish when the club signed Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea on Thursday, but the former Inter striker is unlikely to start against Milan.
Inter Milan have two 2-0 wins so far against Monza and Cagliari, but on Sunday they welcome a Fiorentina side who won 1-0 when the sides met at the San Siro last season.
Elsewhere, the only other side on maximum points, Verona, are away to Sassuolo on Friday. The last time they won their opening three Serie A games, they went on to win the Scudetto in 1985.
Juventus, who drew with Bologna last weekend after a 3-0 win at Udinese, face a trip to Empoli on Sunday.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Toby Davis)
