Until a few weeks ago, he looked at the December 19 as the date that would give us a first verdict on who, between Milan and Naples, should have been considered the number one candidate for the Scudetto. Until a few weeks ago, perhaps driven by the desire to love those spectacular duels between Sacchi’s Milan and Maradona’s Napoli, it was believed that the Rossoneri of Pioli and the blues of Spalletti they were involved in a kind of two-way flight to final victory. Then came the injuries and a few too many missteps, which allowed Inter to take the lead and Atalanta to forcefully get back into the race. Today, Milan-Napoli is a struggle for survival, to stay attached to the train led by Simone Inzaghi, to take advantage of Atalanta’s misstep, to regain awareness of the beginning of the season. The appointment is at 8.45 pm and it is truly one not to be missed.
HOW THE TWO TEAMS ARRIVE – After the two consecutive defeats against Fiorentina and Sassuolo, unexpected as a bolt from the blue, Milan is slowly recovering, with two wins and a draw, however disappointing, against Udinese in the last three games. Opposite is instead the Moment of Napoli who have not won in three games and lost the last two against Empoli and Atalanta. A role in the sudden braking of these two teams, who traveled at impressive rates, with a sparkling game and a great defensive solidity, certainly had the injuries. Pioli presents himself to this challenge with the solo Giroud recovered compared to previous matches e losing theo for an influence, which is added to the already unavailable Kjaer, Calabria, Rebic, Leao, Pellegri and Plizzari. The situation is perhaps worse for Napoli, which presents itself at the most important appointment of the first round without practically its spine, composed of Koulibaly, Fabian Ruiz e Osimhen, and without the two owners of the left wing, Mario Rui and captain Insigne. The classification see the Milan al second placed, momentarily at -4 from Inter and the Naples fourth, three points away from Milan and one from Atalanta.
THE STATISTICS – Milan-Napoli is never a trivial challenge, especially those rare times when we talk about the Scudetto, which recall in the memory the beautiful challenges, at the end of the Eighties, among what is considered as one of the strongest teams in the history of football, the AC Milan of Sacchi, Van Basten, Gullit and company, and the Naples which in those years had the God of Soccer, Diego Armando Maradona. Tonight will be the 168th intersection, the 75th at San Siro, where the budget is 32 to 16 for Milan, with 26 draws. Since sitting on the Meazza bench, however, Stefano Pioli has never won at home against Napoli: a draw and a defeat in the previous two. The referee of the match will be Davide Massa, who has already refereed a match between these two teams, but at Napoli, who won 3-1 on that occasion.
OFFICIAL FORMATIONS
Milan (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Florenzi, Tomori, Romagnoli, Ballo-Touré; Tonali, Kessie; Messias, Diaz, Krunic, Ibrahimovic. Coach: Pioli.
Naples (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Juan Jesus, Malcuit; Anguissa, Demme; Lozano, Elmas, Zielinski; Petagna. Coach: Spalletti.
AFTER THE MATCH, STAY ON CALCIOMERCATO.COM TO READ THE INSIGHT BY ALBERTO POLVEROSI.
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