AC Milan welcomes Serie A league leaders Napoli in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday. This time around, a duel between Calcio Titans takes place on the European stage. In the teams’ first Champions League meeting, Milan will look to replicate their four-goal success in Naples earlier this month, while their visitors – who are almost certain to dethrone the Rossoneri as Italian champions – will look to continue their impressive record in Europe’s top club competition. Though their Scudetto defense has not gone quite as planned, with Wednesday’s opponents streaking out at the top of the table, Milan has nonetheless made it to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2012.
The Lombardy giants were ousted by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona on that occasion; they last reached the semi-finals five years ago, when they went on to win European football’s top award for the seventh time. The Rossoneri kept their place in Italy’s top four with a goalless draw at home to Empoli last Friday – a far cry from their previous outing, when they summoned the form and fortitude of last year’s title run by beating an unusually shaky Napoli side 4-0 at Stadio Maradona.
Despite dealing such a psychological blow, the 22-point gap between them and the Serie A summit means that clinching a spot in next season’s Champions League via their league finish is now Stefano Pioli’s side’s main domestic concern, having already exited the Coppa Italia. While they have often lacked fluency, as Rafael Leao’s post-World Cup woes continue and Pioli’s paper-thin squad fails to rise to the occasion, Milan has proven particularly difficult to beat in Europe.
AC Milan will aim to continue that trend against the 2022-23 edition’s top scorers before visiting Napoli next week for the return leg, and a look at the history books says they can; the Rossoneri have lost only one of nine previous all-Italian matchups in continental play. Neapolitans, famous for their superstition, will prefer to focus on the fact that Milan has won just three of their last 16 Champions League knockout matches, failing to score in ten of them. Perhaps more importantly, the second-city team has only defeated its southern rivals once in their last nine encounters at San Siro. Indeed, Napoli has won each of their last three visits to the legendary Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, including a 2-1 league victory there last season.
That triumph was only one of 24 in 29 Serie A games so far, with the most recent coming in Lecce last weekend, and not only are preparations for the city’s first Scudetto party in over 30 years well underway, but Luciano Spalletti’s side is still looking to break new ground in Europe. In addition to a string of spectacular victories that has propelled them to the top of the Champions League scoring charts with 25 goals (their average of 3.1 per game is the fifth-best in a single season), Napoli has been rock-solid at the back, as evidenced by a 5-0 aggregate win over last-16 opponents Eintracht Frankfurt.
Without the totemic presence of star striker Victor Osimhen, they tripped severely when facing Milan at Stadio Maradona two weeks ago, but – due to an injury incurred on Nigeria duty – they fell badly when meeting Milan at Stadio Maradona two weeks ago. If the baton was supposed to be transferred from one Italian champion to another on that occasion, the Partenopei plainly bungled it, but as they look to stay on track for the Champions League final in Istanbul, Wednesday’s game may be more important.
Stefano Pioli was made uncomfortably aware of his squad’s lack of depth after making many changes to his starting XI against Empoli, thus Milan’s regulars should all return on Wednesday evening. Rafael Leao and Olivier Giroud will return from the start, and Simon Kjaer and Rade Krunic are expected to join them.Brahim Diaz also returns, hoping to build on his outstanding effort against Napoli earlier this month. However, Pierre Kalulu is scheduled to miss out due to a calf injury, leaving shrewd veteran Kjaer to compete with teenager Malick Thiaw for the privilege to partner Fikayo Tomori at the heart of the hosts’ back four.
For more football predictions, click here
