Real Madrid v Napoli Betting Tips: Italians can acquit themselves well at Bernabéu

On the face of it, this may appear as a decent draw for Real Madrid, but Napoli are a side who’ve progressed massively this season and, with the hosts not quite at their best right now, the Italian outfit could fare well at the Bernabéu on Wednesday night.

From a betting point of view, Real look particularly short at 4/7. Of course, with the Bernabéu crowd behind them, the hosts can be tough to overcome; however, Napoli aren’t to be taken lightly and should have the quality required to cause the hosts plenty of problems.

There are two bets favouring the visitors that catch the eye here and these are: ‘Napoli to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ and ‘Napoli to Score Over 0.5 Second Half Goals’ at odds of 12/5 & 23/20 respectively.

If there’s one thing that Napoli have done consistently this season then it’s score goals. With 57 goals to their name in Italy, Maurizio Sarri’s men are easily the highest scorers in Serie A, while they certainly weren’t lacking in the group stages of this competition when scoring 11 in six matches.

Playing on the road has proved to be no problem for Napoli of late and they’ve now scored at least twice in each of their last seven, as well as notching twice in two of their three away matches back in the group stages. Naturally, facing Madrid away provides more of a challenge than some of their opposition in Serie A, but, with 19 goals in their last five away games, the Italians are likely to be confident. After all, it’s not like Madrid have been infallible of late.

It is definitely fair to say that Zidane’s men have somewhat underwhelmed in recent matches. For large parts of their recent 3-1 win over a struggling Osasuna side, they looked very shaky, while they’ve kept just one clean sheet in their last seven, conceding at least twice in four of those. On their own patch, Madrid do of course carry a serious attacking threat, but there’s every chance, what with the pace and forward strength in Napoli’s ranks, that they’ll struggle to contain the visitors, especially on the counter.

Another interesting pointer is the fact that each of the last seven goals conceded by the hosts on their own patch have come in the second half. Considering that Napoli, when playing away from home, have scored at least one second half goal in four of their last five, and in seven of their last ten, it’s worth backing the visitors to register on the score-sheet during the second half of this one.

Given the defensive frailties that have surfaced at times for Madrid this season, coupled with just how menacing a Napoli forward line that contains the pace and skill of Dries Mertens, Lorenzo Insigne and ex-Madridista José Callejón is, at the prices, backing goals for the visitors is definitely the way to go.

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