The 2017-18 Serie A season is looming large, and on Wednesday we finally learned what the schedule for the campaign would look like. The ever-dramatic draw pumped full of pomp and circumstance was held in front of a worldwide audience — though unfortunately there was no Scooter Watch, as Napoli owner Aurelio De Laurentiis was not in attendance.
Here at The Siren’s Song, though, we don’t put as much into the over-production of a graph, so here’s the fixture list without further hullabaloo.
Napoli fixture list, Serie A 2017-18
| Round | Opponent | Home/Away |
|---|---|---|
| Round | Opponent | Home/Away |
| 1 | Hellas Verona | Away |
| 2 | Atalanta | Home |
| 3 | Bologna | Away |
| 4 | Benevento | Home |
| 5 | Lazio | Away |
| 6 | SPAL | Away |
| 7 | Cagliari | Home |
| 8 | AS Roma | Away |
| 9 | Inter Milan | Home |
| 10 | Genoa | Away |
| 11 | Sassuolo | Home |
| 12 | Chievo Verona | Away |
| 13 | AC Milan | Home |
| 14 | Udinese | Away |
| 15 | Juventus | Home |
| 16 | Fiorentina | Home |
| 17 | Torino | Away |
| 18 | Sampdoria | Home |
| 19 | Crotone | Away |
After round 19, of course, the Serie A schedule starts over in order from round 1, with the home and away teams flipped. There’s a lot to unpack for Napoli fans here, but a few quick highlights:
- The Benevento match in week four represents the first Campania derby in a long time in Serie A. That’s a huge, important, and potentially very fun match — just as long as all the fans involved keep their heads.
- Speaking of fans keeping their heads, or not as the case may be, both of Napoli’s trips to Verona are in the first half of the season, including a match against Hellas Verona in the opening fixture. Trips to Verona are rarely fun for Napoli fans, with a long history of fan-caused trouble between the two clubs in Verona over the years.
- Conversely, both of Napoli’s trips to Milan are in the second half of the season, potentially making the run-in to the end of the season a little bit tougher given how both clubs have worked to improve this summer, especially AC Milan.
- And of course, the always-watched clash against Juventus comes at home in week 15 — meaning that Napoli will have a vital and difficult trip to Turin late in the season when everything is on the line.
- Napoli will be playing at Christmastime with Serie A not taking a winter break this year, with their match against Sampdoria at the Stadio San Paolo taking place just before Christmas, and their away match to Crotone taking place just before New Years’.
It’s going to be a long and interesting season. Which fixtures are you looking forward to the most?