Napoli vs Juventus: Conte, Spalletti clash for first time as managers
Antonio Conte and Luciano Spalletti will finally go head-to-head for the first time when Napoli welcome Juventus to the Stadio Maradona on Sunday evening.
It’s a high-stakes clash: Napoli can reclaim top spot with a win, while Juventus need three points to keep pace in the early Champions League race.
Both sides enter with depleted squads. Napoli are missing four midfielders, Kevin De Bruyne, Stanislav Lobotka, Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Billy Gilmour, while Juventus travel without Dusan Vlahovic and a trio of defenders in Federico Gatti, Bremer and Daniele Rugani.
How two elite coaches kept missing each other
Despite spending nearly two decades at the top of European football, Conte and Spalletti have never met as rival head coaches until now, a scheduling quirk shaped by timing, geography and career choices.
Conte launched his managerial career in Serie B with Arezzo and Bari between 2006 and 2009.
At the same time, Spalletti was managing Roma in Serie A, ensuring their paths never crossed.
Russia, National Teams and the Premier League created more distance
From 2009 to 2014, Spalletti worked abroad with Zenit St. Petersburg, far from Conte’s spells at Atalanta, Siena and Juventus.
Conte then took over the Italy national team between 2014 and 2016, while Spalletti returned to Roma for the 2016-17 campaign, another near-miss.
Spalletti took charge of Inter from 2017 to 2019, only for Conte to replace him immediately after, running Inter from 2019 to 2021. Their timelines aligned, but never overlapped.
Conte moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 2021, managing there until 2023, while Spalletti was simultaneously leading Napoli to major success.
Spalletti then transitioned to the Italian national team in 2023, ruling out any club-level meetings for two seasons.
A first meeting, nearly 20 years in the making
Now, in the 2025-26 Serie A campaign, the wait is finally over. Napoli vs Juventus delivers the historic first showdown between Conte and Spalletti, a marquee encounter with significant implications for the title race and Champions League positioning.
