When Napoli went down to 10 men during Wednesday night’s game after Andre Frank Zambo-Anguissa got a second yellow card, many expected AC Milan to seize the change to get another goal.
However, they were unable to get one and in fact they even came under pressure towards the end, but as Giuseppe Pastore reports on Twitter this is nothing new.
In fact, in the last three seasons, Milan have played 222 minutes (excluding added time) with a man advantage, scoring just two goals from open play and conceding a rather remarkable four goals.
The goals scored are Hauge against Napoli (2020) and Calabria against Bologna (2021), while the subsequent goals of Ibrahimovic and Bennacer came with 11 men against 9).
They conceded twice against Bologna in 2021 while a man up (own-goal by Ibrahimovic and a goal from Barrow), once against Pavkov of Red Star (2021) and once against Adopo of Torino in this year’s Coppa Italia round of 16.
Given how delicate the situation was and the magnitude of the game, it is perhaps not a surprise that Milan didn’t take advantage of the extra man, even though a two-goal difference would have been important in view of the second leg.
I said during the match when napoli were building up they looked like they were a player more because they really go up in numbers but we managed that well by counter attacking and going around that group of players with a dribble like that of Diaz. Therefore there was not much of a difference in the way Napoli were when a man down