Did the best win? Well, looking at the championship standings it wouldn’t seem like that. But in the Champions League and in the Cups it’s not just about being the strongest and the best, because what matters most of all is the moment. And this was the right moment for Milan, who have concentrated all their efforts on getting in shape now, in these months which decide their European season. The Italian one is convinced of recovering it when – precisely – the time comes. So the best man didn’t win, but whoever was better off won. Pioli’s bolt, stuff that even Allegri dreams of, also resisted at Fuorigrotta, and he did it with more merit than he had at San Siro. One by one the ending.
First: don’t take them
Two missed penalties, or saves, one on each side, few net actions, two goals at the end of the half, emotions with a dropper as befits Italian football. More than anything else we witnessed a splendid defensive game, that of Milan, because it’s not enough to block, but you also need to know how to do it and have the dominant men in the box. The refereeing errors at San Siro and the penalty denied at San Paolo by the excellent Marciniak weigh perhaps on Napoli’s elimination (even the best ones make mistakes: you still have referees like that).
Block and counterattack, Pioli’s cynical football
In the boiling atmosphere of Maradona, very different from the controversy of the 0-4 in the championship, bitterly contested by Spalletti – “if they still do like this, I’ll take it and go home” -, we had restarted from Milan’s lead goal scored by Ismael Bennacer in the San Siro first leg. Napoli, mutilated by the mediocre refereeing of the Romanian Istvan Kovacs with the red light for Anguissa and the yellow for Kim, had decided to plug these two holes not recently with Ndombelé and Juan Jesus. On the other hand, Spalletti finds Osimhen again, tested in the panting queue of the goalless draw with Verona. Taking into account the servant, of the three tenors of this Napoli there are always two missing. Pioli, on the other hand, can afford to still field the same eleven who have already been right against the Azzurri twice in the past month, after having jealously kept them at rest in the championship matches, proposing the same scheme that worked so well in the previous matches : all blocking behind and rare bites on the counterattack, grafted by the lamp of Ibrahim Diaz and by the bucking of Theo and Leao.
The useless siege, the denied penalty and Milan’s goal
Thus we begin as expected, with the Rossoneri holed up in their own area with full staff and even Giroud acting as an ancient stopper to stand out in the scrums. Corner kicks one after the other, suffocating pressing from the home team, only played in the last eleven meters of the Rossoneri, blocked worse than a traffic jam at rush hour. Oshimen always has four or five around. In the first minutes, Kvaratskhelia also manages to get rid of the cage of Calabria and Krunic, but his conclusions are always countered by some defender. In twenty minutes of obsessive pressure, however, there is no real dangerous action, with the exception of two shots by Politano, by far the best, one saved and the other on the outside of the net. For Milan, on the other hand, it is enough to look once in the Napoli area and an unfortunate intervention by Mario Rui on Leao, after the AC Milan forward had already passed the ball, seems to direct this game immediately too: an impeccable penalty. Throws Giroud, quite angled at mid-height, Meret flies and returns. This episode seems to affect the game in some way.
The weight of fear
Napoli, no one knows how frightened, instinctively slowed down and Milan regained some courage, immediately creating another great opportunity with Giroud who fired a powerful left foot from close range, countered by a desperate intervention by Meret. Immediately afterwards, other not very encouraging signs for Spalletti: Politano and Mario Rui get hurt one after the other, forced out, replaced by Lozano and Olivera. That luck is not so much a friend can be seen when towards the fortieth minute Leao in a slide finds Lozano’s foot in the middle of the area, but Marciniak, one of the best referees in the world, and the Var do not see the penalty clear enough. The impression is that with this deadbolt double-locked by Pioli, the only way to unlock the deadlock is a fortuitous episode, a rebound in the scrum, a defender’s mistake, or a penalty, in fact. And since it always rains in the wet, the protests have just ended when Ndombelé (his bad game, how much Anguissa missed!) loses the ball near the Milan area and Leao flies away in fantastic progression jumping three men one after the other , to give Giroud, alone and free in front of goal, the opening goal.
It’s the 43rd minute, and that’s how the first half ends. Right result, objectively, which is flawless. Unlike San Siro, when Napoli had created many scoring chances, this time even if their siege is much more continuous and suffocating, not even once have they managed to shake the goal defended by Maignan. On the contrary, Milan looked the other way three times, came close to scoring twice and did it the last time. Leao is a miraculous arrow who doesn’t even need an archer, he does everything by himself, takes the ball and goes. Kjaer is simply perfect, there isn’t a ball in the area that doesn’t end up on his head. And Giroud does it all, the defender, the only striker, misses a penalty and then scores the opening goal. But beyond all these considerations, Marciniak’s mistake on the penalty not assigned to Napoli weighs enormously.
Osimhen draws too late
Second half. Not even a minute and this time the start seems different from the first half, Kvara goes into the serpentine, enters the area and from the back looks for a shot that touches the crossbar. But it’s a flash in the pan. Because the canvas resumes its course, with Milan tightening the shirts even more in defense, and Napoli can’t find outlets or even ideas for their game. The only action he produces lies in the sprints of Kvara, perhaps the only one who continues to believe in it, and who again in the 11th minute starts from midfield on the wing, takes out one of them in speed, enters the area and overtakes the other two and then shoot on goal: high. In the 15th minute another personal action, this time by Lozano, and the ball over the crossbar again. The Great Beauty is no longer in the game, only more in men than he is. However, perhaps they are no longer those of the best moments or of Napoli for a few months. The Azzurri throw themselves forward, without much construct, more heart than head, more despair than hope. In the 80th minute perhaps the match could reopen, when due to an intervention by Tomori with his hand, Marciniak whistles the penalty that he hadn’t given in the first half.
Kvara’s determinant error
Kvara appears on the penalty spot, but his shot is not too angled and a great goalkeeper like Maignan, one of the best in the world, caught for a few euros, manages to get there. Olivera tries again with a header from a corner kick, the ball just wide, and Kvara in the usual personal action and Maignan is back to say no. Then Sentenza Oshimen made no mistake at the last minute, a header in the scrum anticipating everyone. The Champions League is lost, but honor is safe.