NAPOLI v AC MILAN: OPPONENT REVIEW

It's back to the league and it's a big match for AC Milan: the Rossoneri will visit top-ranked Napoli on Sunday evening, in what will be the first of the three matches between Serie A and the Champions League this season. But where in the European double-header to clinch a place in the semi-finals the values will be reset, the league one starts from distinctly different premises. Spalletti's team is dominating the 22/23 tournament far and wide and has built up a lead of a good 19 points over its pursuers (taking into account the 15 penalty points given to Juventus), who are currently only destined to compete for the best placings in the standings ahead of next year. Napoli 22/23 is also an absolute protagonist in the comparison with its own history: for the first time in Serie A it has won 23 of the first 27 matches played.

To go back to the more recent past, a win against the Diavolo in this match would already equal the number of victories achieved in the entire last championship (24). The favour of prediction hangs, numbers in hand, on the side of Di Lorenzo and his companions; However, although the leaders face an opponent out of form both in general - in the last nine Serie A fixtures only Lecce (six) have recorded more defeats than AC Milan (five) - and away from home - Pioli's eleven have suffered four defeats in their last five league outings (1V), including the two most recent - the Maradona will be a highly charged and motivational match between the reigning Italian champions and the most likely candidates for the next Tricolore.

SET PIECES VS. OPEN PLAY: TWO PHILOSOPHIES CLASH AT THE MARADONA
In Sunday evening's match at the Maradona, from a technical point of view, two teams will face each other whose strengths are polar opposites. Napoli boast record numbers on set-pieces both offensively and defensively: the Neapolitans are both the team that has scored the most goals from set-pieces in the five current European leagues (21) and the one that has conceded the fewest (just two). To this should be added another impressive statistic, relating to headers: the team that has scored the most in the five major European leagues 22/23 (Napoli, 15, including Simeone's goal in the first leg that earned the Azzurri the three points), and the team that has conceded the most in this particular aspect in Serie A (AC Milan, 10).

In the Diavolo's favour, however, are the numbers concerning offensive efficiency in the open field. AC Milan is the team that has scored the most goals from open play as a percentage of total goals in the current Serie A (84%: 37/44) and in the five European leagues 22/23 only Barcelona (92%), Rennes (87%) and Manchester United (85%) boast a higher percentage. This is why Sunday's challenge could prove to be an almost identity issue.

KVARA-OSIMHEN THE DYNAMIC DUO, WATCH OUT FOR ZIELINSKI AS USUAL
One is one step away from becoming the best African goalscorer in Serie A history, the other has been dubbed Kvaradona by many, and in his homeland 'The Maradona of Georgia'. Although these two pieces of information would potentially be enough to frame the two main dangers facing AC Milan's defence in the clash with Napoli, the numbers being recorded by Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia help to better understand the offensive effectiveness of the two brightest talents on Spalletti's bench. The Nigerian 24 year-old is just one goal away from becoming the best African goalscorer in the history of Serie A (the title is currently held by former Rossoneri George Weah, 46).

Combining perfectly with the 24-year-old from Lagos is Kvaratskhelia (12 goals and 10 assists in this league): skilful at beating his man, lethal in the change of pace and surgical in finding space in front of goal. Curbing him will be complicated, as it is for everyone. Last name on the notebook, but not in importance given the 'feeling' with AC Milan, that of Piotr Zieliński: the Diavolo is his favourite victim in Serie A: four goals, including his first brace in the tournament (25 August 2018, Napoli 3-2 AC Milan). In the current competition, the Pole is standing out more for assists (seven) than goals (three), but the guard level must remain high on him as well.

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