By the end of today Napoli and AC Milan will know who is going through to the final four of the Champions League and who will be left to focus just on Serie A.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) write how Napoli have never got this far in European competitions, while for the Rossoneri it is 16 years since they last made the semi-finals and they went on to win the competition.
The challenge between Pioli and Spalletti thus comes to a showdown: the Milan coach relies on Leao, the Napoli boss on Osimhen. The two coaches will lean on their star men hoping for some inspiration to unlock a tie that is finely poised.
It will be the last of four meetings between the teams this season and up until the beginning of last season it seemed as though Spalletti had Pioli’s number, but the 1-0 win at the Maradona last season – which proved to be crucial in the Scudetto win – and the last two matches (4-0 and 1-0 wins) show that they can go toe to toe.
Napoli however have scored in 12 straight European games at home and this season they have won four times out of four at home, scoring at least three goals per game. Milan have managed to raise their game in Europe though, and have gone five games in a row without conceding a goal in the Champions League.
Looking at the key men, Leao only has two goals in the Champions League – one last year against Atletico Madrid and another this year against Dinamo Zagreb – but he manages to make the difference even without scoring. He is behind only Vinicius of Real Madrid for dribbles in the current edition of the UCL.
On the other hand, the Azzurri have Osimhen against who is undoubtedly the best striker in the league. He is a powerful, fast centre-forward who will be fired up to lead his team to the semis, but Simon Kjaer will be the man hoping to stop him.