AC Milan welcome Napoli to the San Siro tonight hoping to win their second straight league game and put the pressure on Juventus and Inter.
Milan come into the game off the back of another comeback away win, this time against Frosinone, while they welcome a side who have had anything but a smooth Scudetto defence given they are four points off fourth.
The outcome of the game will be heavily influenced by a number of key battles across the field, starting with the one between Olivier Giroud and Amir Rrahmani.
The Frenchman has scored five goals against Napoli (four away from home), more than against any other opponent since he joined. He has been involved in 19 goals (11 goals, 8 assists) in 20 league appearances this season, but he faces a centre-back who will be well up for the physical battle.
Staying with Milan’s attack, Giovanni Di Lorenzo will take on Rafael Leao again and he will hope to fare better than he did last season given the winger ran him ragged particularly at the Maradona.
Leao is in a difficult run of form having not scored since September in the league and he will hope that the drought ends today, though he may end up facing Ostigard a fair bit too given Napoli are expected to use a 3-5-1-1.
In midfield, Ismael Bennacer will most likely act on the centre-right and will have a very important task: to stop Kvicha Kvaratshkelia getting hold of the ball and creating danger, given he will be playing a more central role.
Stefano Pioli has always come up with measures to try stop the Georgian, even dating back to the meetings in the last couple of seasons, and tonight will be no different. Davide Calabria and Yacine Adli will have to do their bit as well.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek will play as the more advanced midfielder for Milan and he faces a very important double task against Napoli’s metronome Stanislav Lobotka.
In addition to trying to build on his recent flurry of goals, the Englishman must try disrupt Lobotka in the build-up phase by pinning him and pressing well. When the Slovakian has time to operate, he is very much the man pulling the strings.
Finally, we end with Giovanni Simeone‘s battle against Simon Kjaer. The Argentine striker has actually scored three times against the Rossoneri in 13 appearances and will look to build on that tally, especially with Victor Osimhen at AFCON.
On the other hand, Kjaer has started a lot of games recently and his defensive work has been called into question alongside Milan’s increase in goals conceded, but he will be well up for the duel.
