Rome, Apr 17 The result of the first leg of the quarter-finals in Giuseppe Meazza (1-0) against Milan forces Napoli to look for the epic at home, a Diego Armando Maradona who will be full to help his team continue to score the ‘story in a dream season, in which the ‘rossoneri’ appear as his toughest rival, the only one who managed to reduce him twice.
This Tuesday, two Italian teams will fight for a ticket to the historic semi-finals. Milan for their return to the greatest 16 years later and Napoli for reaching this round for the first time and extending the great season they are enjoying.
A match that presents itself open, with only one goal difference, but with certain complications for the Neapolitans. And it is that the expulsion of the Cameroonian Zambo Anguissa and the yellow card that the South Korean Kim Min-Jae saw left both the midfield and the defense affected.
Macedonian Elif Elmas or Frenchman Tanguy Ndombele are Italian coach Luciano Spalletti’s alternatives to replace Anguissa in midfield, while it will be Brazilian Juan Jesus who will form in the center of the back with Kosovar Amir Rrahmani.
However, the good news for Spalletti is that he has Nigerian Victor Osimhen back, one of his most important men, if not the most. The striker was unable to play the first leg due to an injury which sidelined him since the end of March and was a serious setback for the team in the first leg, which lost energy and his striker’s sense of goal.
Osimhen and Georgian Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are touted as Napoli’s biggest arguments to overturn the unfavorable first leg result.
The rest of the squad will be available for the most important game of the season for the southern side, seeking a Champions League semi-final for the first time in their history. A gala XI that was largely based on the championship day of a virtually doomed Serie A, but in which it collected a goalless draw against Hellas Verona who are fighting for relegation.
There are three games without a win in the last four played, but now the only one that matters in Naples is this Tuesday. What is worrying about the data is that two of those games were against a Milan who took the pulse of the leaders in Italy, and they arrive with morale through the roof after 0-4 in the league and 1-0 in Champions. League.’.
Two victories which will not be of much use to the team of Italian coach Stefano Pioli if he does not certify his ticket for the semi-finals. The ‘Rossonero’ team have the perfect opportunity in the Champions League to turn around a very irregular season in Serie A, in which they are fourth, struggling to establish themselves in the top 4, and in which, like Napoli, with a eleven full of substitutes, tied on the last day, against Bologna.
But this Milan has shown that they don’t need to feel good in the domestic league to perform well in the continent’s top club competition. The result in favor of a draw will allow him to face the match without the anxiety of being forced to score, as he has already done successfully against Tottenham in the round of 16.
Pioli will repeat the eleven he fielded in the first leg, with the Spaniard Brahim Díaz and the Portuguese Rafael Leao as the big names of the moment, who in this clash will once again be of paramount importance, because they are the ones who will have to give, with the French Olivier Giroud, oxygen to a Milan which will not be reluctant to give up the ball.
Napoli and Milan have had two almost antagonistic seasons in Serie A, but in the Champions League everything is different. At Diego Armando Maradona, the ticket for the semi-finals will be certified after a match that, despite the ‘Rossonera’ advantage, is very open.
. likely queues
– Naples: Meret; Lawrence, Rrahmani, Jean Jesus, Mario Rui; Lobotka, Zielinski, Elmas; Lausanne, Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen.
– Milan: Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Kjaer, Theo; Bennacer, Tonali; Leao, Krunic, Brahim; Giroud.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL)
Stadium: Diego Armando Maradona
Time: 21:00 CET (19:00 GMT). ECE
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