NAPOLI v AC MILAN: OPPOSITION REVIEW

After the precious victory achieved thanks to Ismaël Bennacer's decisive goal in the first leg at San Siro, AC Milan return to face Napoli at the Maradona in search of their 13th European Cup or Champions League semi-final. The Rossoneri, who last reached this stage of the competition in the 2006/07 edition, have only twice been eliminated after winning the first leg of a knockout fixture: in 2003/04 against Deportivo La Coruña in the quarter-finals (4-1 first leg, 0-4 second) and in 2012/13 against Barcelona in the round of 16 (2-0 and 0-4). In addition to the past trends, AC Milan will be able to count on the solidity of their defensive department: the Rossoneri have not conceded a goal in their last five Champions League matches, establishing the longest clean sheet streak for a team since Manchester City in 2020/21 (seven in a row). The Diavolo can boast only one longer run in the competition: seven straight clean sheets in the 2004/05 season, when they reached the final.

They will face the side led by Luciano Spalletti, who, after winning their group ahead of Liverpool and eliminating Eintracht Frankfurt in the Round of 16 with an aggregate score of 5-0, want to continue their unbeaten streak at home that has seen them remain unbeaten in their last 12 Champions League matches in front of their own fans (nine wins and three draws since the 4-2 defeat against Manchester City in November 2017), and win a place in the semi-finals for the first time in their nine appearances in the competition. Napoli, the Serie A leaders with a 14 point lead over second-placed Lazio, have, however, not scored in their last two home matches (0-4 against AC Milan and 0-0 with Hellas Verona) for the first time in all competitions since December 2021 (0-1 defeats to Empoli and Spezia in the league) and have not gone three matches in a row without scoring since February 2010 (goalless draws in Serie A against Palermo, Genoa and Inter).

POSSESSION AND SET PIECES ARE A WEAPON
The work the Rossoneri do off the ball will be decisive in this game. The Azzurri are one of the two teams - together with Bayern Munich - that, in this season of the Champions League, have scored more goals following sequences of at least 10 passes ending with a shot or a touch in the opponent's area (four). In addition to this, the Rossoneri will have to be attentive to the proficiency of the Partenopei in exploiting dead balls: in fact, the Campania team are the team that have scored more goals from set pieces (18, same as Juventus, excluding penalties and direct free kicks) in all competitions, fewer only than Monaco, who have the most with 19 goals. At the same time, Napoli have sometimes proved vulnerable in their own half: in fact, they are the side to have suffered more offensive recoveries (88), less only than Borussia Dortmund (94) and Bayern Munich (93) among the teams participating in this Champions League season. The Diavolo could therefore exploit this weakness of the Azzurri, by focusing on a detail that has become important to Stefano Pioli's AC Milan: counter attacks, which was the fashion in which the only goal scored in the first leg of this Italian derby in Europe came.

KVARATSKHELIA, OSIMHEN AND ZIELIŃSKI: THE "KEY" PLAYERS IN SPALLETTI'S SQUAD
As already seen in the first leg, the main attacking threat of Luciano Spalletti's team and from whose feet the possible dangers for the Rossoneri's defence can arrive is Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. The Georgian, despite the chance he missed to put Napoli ahead at the start of the game at San Siro, was the player who completed the most dribbles against the Rossoneri in the first leg, putting opponents in trouble and constantly being marked by two men. As further proof of the skills of Napoli's 22-year-old, we are talking about the player who has the most chances so far in this Champions League (15, at least five more than any other). In addition to Kvaratskhelia, the Diavolo will also have to watch out for the returning Victor Osimhen, scorer of 25 goals in 30 matches in 2022/23 in all competitions and a lethal player in the box, and Piotr Zieliński, who has been involved in five goals (3 goals, 2 assists) in four home games in the Champions League, scoring or providing an assist on average every 49 minutes. The Polish midfielder thus moved within one goal involvement at the Diego Armando Maradona, of the Napoli player who has been involved in the most goals in home matches in a single Champions League season: Edinson Cavani in 2011/12 (4 goals, 2 assists).

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