Andrea Colombo to referee Napoli against Roma, Aureliano on VAR

The officials are confirmed for Saturday 24 October at the Maradona. The real story is the bench: the club has named this game as the second test for Allegri, against a Roma side seven points ahead.

by Gennaro SanninoWednesday 21 October, 16:21 CET· yesterday

Napoli-Roma, fischia Colombo di Como: al VAR c'è Aureliano — Grafica Arena Napoli

Andrea Colombo, from the Como branch of the referees' association, will take charge of Napoli against Roma. The game is the eighth round of Serie A and kicks off at 18:00 CET (17:00 UK, 12:00 ET) on Saturday 24 October at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.

His assistants are Bindoni and Rossi. Sacchi is the fourth official and Aureliano is on VAR.

A second test for Allegri

The officials are settled, but supporters are thinking about something else. The club has named this game as the second test for Allegri, after Bodø/Glimt. He passed the first one on Tuesday 20 October, but the 4-3 win was a struggle right up to the 90th minute.

Now the league comes back. Napoli are ninth with 10 points after seven rounds. Roma are third on 17, seven points ahead, and leaders Inter have 19, nine ahead. This is a home game against a direct rival for the top places, and the fanbase will not accept walking away with nothing.

Roma arrive in form

Gasperini's side come in on a high after beating Slovan Bratislava 4-0 in the Champions League. The Roma coach has already made his intentions clear: "Ciao Max, I'm coming." Malen is available again after serving a one-match ban, but Koné is out with a muscle injury.

Napoli's recent results are worse. In the league they lost 1-0 at Venezia despite 29 shots to 9, and De Bruyne had a penalty saved in the 68th minute. In the Champions League they conceded three goals to a side that had 57% of the ball at the Maradona.

The uncomfortable question

On Saturday nobody will be talking about Colombo, or about Aureliano sending him to the monitor. They will be talking about what Allegri said on Tuesday night.

"When we are in our own half, we are fragile."

A referee usually gets the blame when a game is evenly balanced and one incident settles it. Napoli's problem has been the opposite. They have opened up games on their own and then let opponents back into them on their own. Against Roma they need 90 minutes in which nobody has to look for someone to blame off the pitch.

The result will weigh on the head coach's position. After Roma comes the trip to Monza at the end of October, then Porto against Napoli on Wednesday 4 November.