Napoli’s green shoots don’t bear fruit in the match against Milan

The green shoots Napoli had given, adding seven of their previous nine points, bore no fruit at the San Siro, where Barcelona’s Champions League round of 16 opponents (first leg on 21 February in Italy) lost 1-0 Milan, who knew how to get the most out of towards Theo Hernandez’s goal.

A sixth win in seven days allows the Rossoneri to consolidate third place and remain one point behind Juventus, who will host Udinese tomorrow. Eighth defeat of Naples In Serie A, this moves them to ninth place, seven points off the 2024-25 Champions League positions.

Mazzarri changes the system

Walter Mazzarri changed Napoli’s characteristic 4-2-3-1 formation in the first half. in a 3-5-1-1 formation, introducing Leo Ostigard as the third central defender, with Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Pasquale Mazzocchi as strikers and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia behind Gio Simeone in the striker position.

in the middle Mazzarri brought back Piotr Zielinski. a regular player who was not even called up for the match against Verona the day before after refusing to renew his contract. It’s not that the Pole has changed his mind, but the Naples coach can’t afford to be without a key player in his scheme.

Naples starts well, but Milan doesn’t forgive

The truth is that Napoli’s performance was promising as they had possession and had a good chance of taking the lead. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia squandered one of her characteristics on the right and with a low center. Simeone finished the ball off at point-blank range. The ball miraculously did not go into the goal (10 minutes).

Napoli continued to dominate and their play lacked depth against a packed Milan side, but they scored on their first arrival. Once again, the connection between Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez worked perfectly. The Portuguese, close to the left flank, saw his teammate’s rise from an inside position and sent a superb ball into space, which the Frenchman took advantage of to beat Pierluigi Gollini on the way out (25′).

Return to 4-2-3-1 at half-time

In the next game, Leao tried a shot from outside the penalty area, which forced Gollini to show himself, but the first half did not bring any more noticeable actions. The game was even and Naples failed to inflict any damage. defense that lost Davide Calabria due to injury Alessandro Florenzi replaced him in the 37th minute.

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During the break, Mazzarri decided to complete the change of system and, with the score against, sent off Ostigard to bring him onto the field. Matteo Politano is looking for a more attacking weight.

More open second part

He achieved this in the second half with a change of scenery. The game was much more open, with attacks on both goals. Florenzi scored first a shot from outside the penalty area, which Gollini blocked in two halves (48 minutes).

But the determination to score against Napoli grew more and more as time went on. Simeone took the ball away from Ismael Bennacer and his howitzer narrowly missed the target. (55′). Politano suffered the same fate with a chop shot (60 minutes).

Jovic’s letter didn’t work this time

Leao found more opportunities to capitalize on his brilliant shots, and in one of them he also came close to a goal (70 minutes). In the end Stefano Pioli played the Luka Jovic card but this time the ex-Madrid player was not decisive as in previous games.

As a result, Milan suffered from the onslaught of Naples. He lacked success and clarity in attacks against Barça’s opponents, but in the final minutes the post saved the Rossineri when the defender Jan Carlo Simic hits the ball off the post Jesper Lindström crossed from his goal, and in the continuation Mike Maignan took a shot from Politano (88′).

Without Osimhen there is no strike

Milan were never in control of the game but knew how to protect Theo Hernandez’s goal against a Naples side that lacked punch in the absence of their goalscorer. Victor Osimhen, who at the same time lost the African Cup final with Nigeria against Ivory Coast.