AC Milan demolishes Napoli ahead of Champions League meeting

Serie A defending champions AC Milan have upset leaders Napoli with a 4-0 demolition at the Maradona Stadium in their league clash.

This will be a confidence boost for Stefano Pioli’s men as they face Pertonopei in the Champions League quarter-finals.

This result upset all the odds with an astonishing victory away with two goals coming from Rafael Leao’s brace and an Alexis Saelemaekers solo run that put them third on the log.

They will still have to face each other on April 12 and 18. It is hoped that their top striker, Victor Osimhen, will be back in action, having sit this out due to injury 

 Giovanni Simeone stepped into the center-forward role but couldn’t make much impact against the visitors that ran riot.

Pioli experimented using a four-man defense without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Junior Messias, and Pierre Kalulu. It worked, having used three-person defense for a month.

The first chance came to the visitors, but Brahim Diaz couldn’t get enough power to his finish in the opening minutes.

 Simeone had a chance but blasted over from 12 yards on the Piotr Zielinski assist.

Milan then took the lead with a well-worked move. Brahim Diaz shimmied away from Stanislav Lobotka at the by-line, sending Rafael Leao clear to beat Alex Meret with a delightful lob with his first goal in all competition since January 14.

The Rossoneri made it two through Diaz later. Ismael Bennacer got down the left, released it to Brahim Diaz, who took a touch, sent Mario Rui past with a dummy, and fired in from six yards. 

Napoli looked for a way to reduce the deficit when Lobotka’s rocket from a distance hit Mike Maignan on his chest, while Brahim Diaz’s effort was fingertipped over on the counter-attack.

Maignan was also called into action with a robust safe from Zielinski’s strike.

From the tightest of angles, Kim Min-Jae almost caught Maignan out at the near post, but his shot went wide.

 Mario Rui was freed by Kvaratskhelia’s pass, only to be denied by the goalkeeper’s face.

Milan then took the game beyond the host with a classic counter-attack for 3-0 through Leao.

After Sandro Tonali won the ball in the midfield and released Leao down the left, he dummied Amir Rahmani before smashing into the roof of the net from a tight angle.

The visitors eventually got the fourth goal when substitute Alexis Saelemaekers collected a pass from Davide Calabria and dribbled through three defenders to nutmeg Meret with the finish.

Saelemaekers almost got a brace when he rode several tackles before forcing a tough save from Meret.

Milan could have scored, but Fikayo Tomori made a decisive block on Giacomo Raspadori.

Written by Oladipupo Mojeed