Milan which takes advantage of a better general form and which Bennacer’s goal in the 40th minute is enough to win the first act. Naples trying to keep up despite the nerves on edge, in a certain sense containing the losses and keeping alive the hopes for the return.
– The race begins with the most struggling team on the eve, i.e. Napoli who lost three fundamental pieces in the centre-forward box, who immediately pushes on the accelerator creating the greatest number of opportunities and maintaining a light control over the operations for the first half hour. Milan which instead, in the same period of time, suffers greatly from the pressure of the Azzurri, that dirty the construction of the Rossoneri forced more than necessary to the long ball;
– The turning point of the match was Leao’s opportunity, good at exploiting Rrahmani’s indecision that slipped, which represented a real clarion call for his team. The cover, however, takes it brahim diazauthor of an exceptional play that gave way to the signed advantage goal Bennacer. Like a boxer who has just suffered an uppercut in the face, Napoli staggers, risking suffering a second slap from Kjaer which would have scuttled the hopes of the Neapolitans;
– Hopes that remain in the recovery, but that remain so: Napoli in fact tries to respond with a proof of pride, but that ends up being anger, given that the nerves rise to the edge (also thanks to an arbitrage that does very little to calm spirits). For its part, there is regret on the part of Milan for not having given a necessary sprint in the second half, when numerical superiority could have been better exploited to face the Maradona match with greater serenity;
– Elmas, Lozano or Kvaratskhelia to replace the injured Osimhen and Simeone and the bruised Raspadori: this was Spalletti’s doubt on the eve. In hindsight, the best choice would have been Giovanni Di Lorenzo: the captain, both in the first half as a substitute and especially at the end of the game, it proved to be the most dangerous of his. If the equalizer has not arrived, the credit goes to the usual, incredible Maignan, one of the best of his role worldwide;
– In summary: a game certainly intense, but overall ugly compared to the standards of both Milan and Naples, with many technical errors on both sides which affected the overall quality of the game played on the pitch. However, a manly and hard-fought race, which will probably be repeated in six days in Naples, when everything will still be at stake in the light of a result that puts nothing on ice. A race to be played not only for Milan, but also for Naples, despite the rain in the wet for the Azzurri, who will have to give up two very good players like Kim and Anguissa for disciplinary reasons.
The article Scattered considerations after Milan-Naples (1-0) comes from Sportellate.it.