Allegri drops his ban appeal and will miss Monza and Juventus

Massimiliano Allegri will not appeal his two-match touchline ban. He will miss Napoli's trip to Monza on Wednesday 28 October and the visit to Juventus in Turin on Sunday 1 November. He announced it himself on the eve of the Monza game, reversing the appeal the club had announced.

"I've decided to give up the appeal against the ban, because you never know: maybe instead of two matches I get four. Better if I stop at two."

He also joked about what he said in the tunnel after the 3-3 draw with Roma. The federation's prosecutor is considering a case over those words. "'Should have', 'would have'... in Italian that's the conditional, not 'he said' and 'he did'. Let's have a laugh about it."

Supporters have little to laugh about. Napoli are tenth on 11 points, their worst start since 2009-10, and will play two games in four days without their coach on the bench, one of them against Juventus. Allegri got it right at the end: "We're behind in the table and we need to improve." Monza are fifteenth on 7 points. Kick-off on Wednesday is at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 15:45 ET), and it will show whether that improvement has started.