AC Milan 1-2 Napoli: Rossoneri punished for slow start

AC Milan never recovered from their poor start to tonight’s game against Napoli, as Insigne and Callejon both scored within the first ten minutes.

As expected, Napoli started off this game with a lot of pace to their game, focusing on counter-attacks and putting high pressure on the Rossoneri’s defenders.

Just two minutes in, Mertens was brought down by Paletta in the box and was screaming for a penalty. However, the referee of the day Gianluca Rocchi decided not to give a penalty, although we could clearly see on the replays that it was indeed a foul on Mertens. Milan got away on that occasion.

Two minutes later, Suso found Abate on the right flank with loads of space, however, the right-back failed to deliver the cross to Bacca as Albiol made a stunning clearance in the last second.

Sadly for Milan, Napoli broke the deadlock just six minutes in, as Mertens hit a great pass to Insigne, who didn’t make any mistakes with a good left-footed which ended up in the back of the net. Unfortunate for Donnarumma, who got a touch on the ball but failed to keep it out.

Well, it got worse for the San Siro side. Mertens was left with too much space on the counter-attack once again and found Callejon down the left-hand side. The Spaniard fired a shot away between the legs of Donnarumma, who perhaps should have done better on this occasion, and so it was 2-0 to Napoli. Poor start by the Rossoneri to say the least.

However, Milan improved as the first half went on and created a few good chances, including a header from Gustavo Gomez that went just wide of the post.

37 minutes in, Pasalic put the pressure on Tonelli which turned out to be a great decision as the centre-back put the ball in the path of Kucka, who scored with a good shot in off the post.

Napoli went into the half-time break with the lead after a poor start from the Rossoneri.

Just one minute later, like the first half, Albiol made another important clearance as Pasalic nearly found Bacca, who would have been through on goal had the ball arrived.

Despite their opening to the second half, Milan failed to create clear-cut chances, with Napoli doing a great job parking the bus. However, this didn’t stop the Partenopei from counter-attacking and Mertens almost made it 1-3, but Donnarumma denied him spectacularly.

In the 89th minute, Bonaventura’s header was met by the head of Paletta but the ball went just wide again. Last chance was given to Donnarumma (!), who left his position in the goal to try and equalise on a free-kick hit by Suso, but Donnarumma’s header was collected by Pepe Reina.