The second leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Napoli and AC Milan at the Maradona tomorrow night promises to have a number of interesting tactical battles across the field.
La Gazzetta dello Sport have taken a look at how the game might play out tomorrow night and the strategies each team will use to try and set up a meeting with Inter or Benfica in the semi-finals.
Looking at Milan, the paper state how the midfield rotations of Ismael Bennacer, Rade Krunic and Sandro Tonali will be crucial in once again limiting how much Napoli’s trio can impact the game.
In the attacking phase, Theo Hernandez will push up from left-back, with Fikayo Tomori to then move around to cover while Rade Krunic drops deeper to protect the back four and Ismael Bennacer also moves back.
Meanwhile, Luciano Spalletti and Napoli will rely on the vertical runs from the fit-again striker Victor Osimhen, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia playing off him as an inside forward. Matteo Politano and Sergio Olivera will give width for crosses.
Looking more at individual player battles, Theo Hernandez will contest a duel with either Hirving Lozano or Matteo Politano and will have to be careful in timing his runs right while offering substantial defensive coverage.
Meanwhile, on the right hand side the same can be said for Davide Calabria in his duel with Kvaratskhelia, and he must watch the inside movements of the Georgian.
A key theme in both of the two recent games – won 4-0 and 1-0 by Milan – was how Ismael Bennacer was able to limit the influence of Stanislav Lobotka. The two match up well in terms of skills and physicality, but the Algerian got the better of the battle on Wednesday as his forward run led to him scoring the opening goal.
Finally, it must be noted that Spalletti encourages his defenders to get forward. Rrahmani – a centre-back -can overlap when Di Lorenzo pushes forward down the right side.