Milan returns to a Champions League semifinal 16 years later. In search of their eighth Orejona, the Lombard team resisted like a cat belly up the siege that Napoli submitted to them at the Diego Armando Maradona and drew a draw against the future Italian champion with a goal from Olivier Giroud that ratified the 1-0 of the one way in San Siro. The goal for Napoli, from Osimhen, came very late (1-1).
The south against the north of Italy; joy and ambition against defensive sobriety. Bennacer’s goal in the first leg allowed Milan to cede the initiative to Napoli without qualms, intractable and extremely thrown towards the Scudetto, with a whopping 22-point advantage over the Rossoneri, but at a bad moment of play coinciding with the absence for three matches of Victor Osimhen, his Nigerian striker-tank, who returned to the team at the point of attack. A goal guarantee, since he went on goal per game this season, but did not appear until extra time (1-1).
Napoli started with impetus and very active, with a shot just wide by Mario Rui (m. 5) and three corners in a row in six minutes. But the weak shot from Kvaratskhelia at the hands of Maignan (m.8) and the double chance of deflected shots from Politano (m. 13 and 20) were all the powder for those from Vesuvio.
At that point, Milan began to roar and erupt, leaving their field and taking a penalty for Mario Rui’s untimely tackle on Leão (m 21). The specialist Giroud executed, but the Frenchman missed – his second missed penalty in 28 thrown, the previous one missed dating back to 2012-; Meret guessed the intention.
The Napoli goalkeeper became a hero five minutes later by also making it 0-1 from a shot from Giroud with his left foot (m. 27). Milan began to worry Napoli, which, to top it off, lost two of its outstanding players due to injury: Politano and Mario Rui broke almost at the same time after half an hour.
The entrance of Chuqui Lozano gave vitality to those from the south, since the Mexican claimed a penalty for the demolition -without touching the ball- of Leao, which the Polish referee and the VAR ignored (m. 37).
And from the possible 1-0 to 0-1 for Giroud, who hit the third time. Although the great credit for Milan’s goal was from Rafael Leão with a sprinter’s play. The Portuguese recovered in the three-quarter zone, galloped the entire field, and upon stepping on the area gave way to the center for the Frenchman, who scored at will (m. 42). He thanked her by “cleaning” her assistant boot.
Naples came out in a rush again after the restart and the Georgian Kvaratskhelia had a double good chance to tie (m. 46 and 52), but his shots went wide or high. The same thing happened to Lozano (m. 61), Olivera (m. 64) and Zeilinski (m. 72), who subjected Milan to harassment and demolition, but without aim.
The Rossoneri team, with 0-2 on aggregate in the tie, kept their temper, defended tooth and nail, and tried to run the clock. The final blow was the penalty saved by Maignan against the Georgian Kvaratskhelia, who shot fatally, with 10 minutes to go. There the last options of Naples died.
Naples: Meret; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani (Ostigard 74), Juan Jesus, Mario Rui (Olivera 34); Ndombele (Elmas 64), Lobotka, Zielinski (Raspadori 74); Politano (Lausanne 33), Osimhen and Kvaratskhelia.
Milan: Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Krunic, Tonali, Brahim (Junior Messiah 59), Bennacer, Rafael Leão (Saelemaekers 84) and Giroud (Origi 68).
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland). Yellow for Tonali from Milan, and Di Lorenzo from Naples.
Goals: 0-1 Giroud (42); 1-1 Osimhen (94).
