Reaction continues to come in after the enthralling 2-2 draw between Napoli and AC Milan at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona last night, and Corriere dello Sport have published their recap.
The paper (via PianetaMilan) highlight that it was Giacomo Raspadori and Olivier Giroud who made themselves the stars of the show and not Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Rafael Leão like many presumed it would be.
It was a match that was red and black in the first half, then blue in the second half. Giroud’s brace put Milan in a good position but then Raspadori’s excellent free-kick rescued a draw as the two forwards did what they are asked to do: score goals.
For both of the Frenchman’s goals he managed to evade Amir Rrahmani’s marking without too much difficulty. In 2023, Giroud is the striker who – together with Harry Kane and Erling Braut Haaland – has scored the most headed goals with seven.
They marked the 37-year-old’s third and fourth goals at the Maradona since joining Milan, but he had to watch as Matteo Politano and then Raspadori threw away the lead that had been established.
Napoli had not scored from a direct free kick in Serie A since 3 April 2021 when Dries Mertens scored against Crotone, but Raspadori is someone who works hard on set pieces and it earned his side an important point.
Any chance Napoli would swap Raspadori and Politano for Okafor and Chukwueze ????
I wish !!!!
Raspadori is not that good man, I don’t think Okafor is that bad. He should play more. We should have bought Berardi instead of Chukwueze, far better than him.
I’m sure Berardi must have offended Pioli sometime in the past. Otherwise, it was very obvious who we needed for the right wing
Yes Berardi would have been a great choice instead of Chuk. I agree Okafur is not that bad, but would be nice to have Raspadori all the same
It’s true, I think we need more Italians in the team. We have many talented Italians in our academy, but it would take some more years for them to develop into the player we need to see play for us.
I think Chukwueze is getting some unfair stick. He clearly has physical talent and I’ve seen him play much better last year for Villarreal, including creating and scoring. It will come, but it will come faster if he gets more minutes.
Pulisic is clearly “more in form” and is CLEARLY providing much more of the required end product, so it’s understandable why CP usually starts, but Pioli needs to get Chuk minutes (once he’s fit enough). Maybe Leao needs the occasional “rest,” given how much he seems to rest during matches, and Pioli could use CP at LW and Chuk at RW.