Journalist Luca Serafini believes that AC Milan were able to overcome the perceptions of the media and also the protests of Napoli to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Milan are back in the final four of Europe’s top club competition for the first time in 16 years – with a meeting against city rivals Inter awaiting – as they drew 1-1 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, sealing a 2-1 aggregate victory.
It looked as though the energy had transformed when Olivier Giroud missed a penalty after Rafael Leao was brought down during a counter-attack, but the Portuguese winger provided for Giroud on another breakaway and he slotted in to make it 1-0. Victor Osimhen’s late leveller on the night was a mere consolation.
Serafini spoke during his weekly column for MilanNews about Milan’s triumph over the two legs against Luciano Spalletti’s men, explaining how the Rossoneri ignored the potential distractions and got on with the job at hand.
“The key to the double challenge against Napoli was all there. On the one hand, the somewhat superficial awareness of being predestined and immensely stronger, since the day of the draw,” he said.
“The 0-4 in the league? An irrelevant parenthesis. The result of the first leg? A saga, mostly due to unfortunate refereeing. The return? A formality to be completed with an abacus.
“The Neapolitan environment have been constantly over the top, beyond the obstacle, clinging to something else and belittling or even completely ignoring the opponent’s value. A trap into which many commentators have fallen, even non-partisan ones.
“Milan closed there, experiencing two second halves of suffering on the edge of the barricades, stretching themselves to conquer the finish line, being instead all too aware of the strength of Napoli.
“Milan stayed on track, ignoring the bells and whistles, without claiming that the referee had made the biggest mistakes at San Siro to their detriment. Milan also slept well on the night of the fireworks, they responded well to Maradona by giving more voice to their 3,500 splendid fans than to the other 50,000 annihilated.
“This is Europe, this is the Champions League, this is the Rossoneri’s home. No one noticed, but it was all written down: on the one hand pride and satiety, on the other humility and hunger.
“I wrote it last Friday: it’s not necessarily the strongest that get to the end, but the best, the one who are in the best shape. Indeed it was.
“Now let’s leave Napoli to ponder whether 2 defeats and a draw secured in the 93rd minute in 3 matches played in 20 days, 6 goals conceded and one useless goal in the 93rd minute of the third, they are the fruit of political superpowers or of the camp.
“Let them console themselves with the fact that a year ago in Italy this gratuitous can-can was not done for the much more serious and penalising wrongs suffered by the Rossoneri against Atletico Madrid, Porto and this year against Chelsea at the San Siro.”
Tell it how it is Serafini.