Porto vs. Napoli: Match preview, team news, schedule, and how to watch the friendly online

This will be a slightly different and maybe shorter preview than normal, but despite doing a "full" preview for last weekend's friendly, doing them for, well, friendlies just doesn't make a ton of sense. So let's do things that make better sense, eh?

Napoli are in Portugal to take on FC Porto, the first meeting between these two teams since Napoli lost to the Portuguese power in the Europa League round of 16 two years ago. While there's not nearly as much on the line for Napoli in this match, it is a stern test and their biggest they'll face in the pre-season, making this an important match for their preparations under a new manager and with new tactics.

What To Watch For

The Attack

Expect to see the same kind of fluid and dynamic attack we saw against Nice a week ago, but hopefully with a better end product. It's only pre-season and they're learning a new system, but there were several chances not lost just to goal-line clearances, but also to players not being in sync with each other yet. You'll also want to keep a close eye on how things play when Gonzalo Higuain steps onto the pitch -- his involvement and adjustment will be crucial.

The Midfield

There's been very little not to like from Napoli's midfield so far during the pre-season friendlies. They've been aggressive and effective, and the addition of Allan has, so far, been an excellent one. But once the subs started coming in against Nice, things fell apart a bit -- neither Gokhan Inler or Jorginho particularly impressed, with Jorginho's lack of urgency or speed in his on-ball decisions compared to Mirko Valdifiori's quick and certain actions burning Napoli a few times. We need to see more from that second unit when they play in this match.

The Defense

The defense wasn't overly impressive against Nice, with two of the three goals coming on hilariously awful individual errors. With Henrique not likely to play much in this match, though, that should instantly improve things, and we might get a longer look at Vlad Chiriches and Elseid Hysaj in this one as well. We don't need to see perfection from the back line right away -- just notable, appreciable progress.

The Squad

Here's the group available to play against Porto on Saturday:

Goalkeepers: Pepe Reina, Rafael Cabral, Gabriel

Defenders: Raul Albiol, Kalidou Koulibaly, Sebastiano Luperto, Vlad Chiriches, Christian Maggio, Elseid Hysaj, Faouzi Ghoulam, Henrique

Midfielders: Jacopo Dezi, Jorginho, Mirko Valdifiori, Allan, David Lopez, Gokhan Inler, Omar El Kaddouri

Forwards: Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens, Jose Callejon, Gonzalo Higuain, Manolo Gabbiadini

Sadly, despite hopes that he'd be available, it looks like we won't see Marek Hamsik in this match either. He and Ivan Strinic have been slowed up by muscular issues that have slowed them down in training, leaving them unavailable to play quite yet. Also notable in his absence is Jonathan De Guzman, who's supposedly healthy, but is also well outside of Maurizio Sarri's plans for the team.

Gonzalo Higuain is back, though, as are Pepe Reina and Raul Albiol. It'd be surprising to see Higuain or Albiol start, but just having those three available again is excellent to see.

Watch It

TV: Sport TV Americas (U.S.), Premium Calcio 1, Sky Calcio 1 (Italy), Sport TB1 (Portugal)

Online: FuboTV

Other live viewing options can be found here, and as always, we'll have a match thread live here for discussion of the game at hand. You can also follow along with us live on Twitter, and we'll have updates of the most important events on our Facebook page, which you should definitely like.