So, we’re at the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona as AC Milan with a win ensuring a six point gap between them and the league leaders.
The managers, Conte and Allegri were both Serie A champions with Juventus, with the latter getting them to two Champions League finals against Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Napoli are playing three left-footed center backs, with Juan Jesus featuring on the awkward right hand side. Adrien Rabiot and Luka Modric will try to wrestle the dominance in the midfield for AC Milan wile Kevin De Bruyne, Lobotka and Andre-Frank Zambo-Anguissa will do the same for Napoli. KDB’s aim is to receive the ball and play between the lines.
Modric even at age forty shows what he’s still made of as he goes through three Napoli players and draws a foul off Buorgiono which causes him to receive a yellow card. The resulting free-kick causes a chance which was missed by Pavlovic.
AC Milan play with a back 3, with Modric sitting in front of them, with Rabiot and Youssouf Fofana in front of the 2018 Ballon D’or winner. This allows the wingbacks to push up knowing the defensive insurance they have. While defending however, they form a back 5.
For Napoli, Miguel Gutierrez is seen as an outlet on the right hand side.
In the twenty-third minute, Leonardo Spinazzola generated a chance which went wide off the mark. As Zambo-Anguissa and Lobotka are in the center, De Bruyne has a free role, drifting and roaming into the channels between the line when he has the opportunity to do so. Going into the twenty-eighth minute, Napoli was growing into the game.
The game has been pretty even so far, with both sides dominating in varying periods of the game. Napoli defend with a 4-2-3-1 formation as they don’t press Maignan but the centre-backs. Milan had the chance on the transition to draw first blood as Fofana finds Christopher Nkunku who blazes his shot over the bar.
In the fortieth minute, the game seems pretty balanced and both sides need to create more chances and take them in order to win this game.
Half-time! 0-0. Inter would love this result as they see both their title rivals drop points.
The second half begins with both teams committing men forward looking for the first goal of the game. In the fiftieth minute, De Bruyne found Geovane who strikes the ball goalwards as Maignan stretches to save it.
Napoli in the fifty-seventh minute have moved the ball from side to side, patiently waiting for an opening, but were unable to find it. They are also using Spinazzola as an outlet as he has been more lively. Niklas Fullkrug has been a spectator in this game, rarely having a touch of the ball.
As time wore on, Napoli started wrestling back control on the game, with the addition of Alison Santos who came on for Geovane. No Romelu Lukaku as he is recovering in Belgium. Pulisic also comes on as he is three months shy of scoring.
Napoli pushed and pushed, and they finally got their goal in the seventy-ninth minute, as Matteo Politano nicks the goal after Alison Santos finds Di Lorenzo whose cross connects with the Italian winger’s head after poor defending from Milan.
Ten minutes plus added time for Napoli to hold on to their one-goal lead.
Milan started looking for the goal while Napoli was happy to sit back and defend their lead. Milan try to get crosses into the box, but it would have been more useful to get crosses into the box when Fullkrug was in the box.
Five minutes of additional time for Napoli to hold on to their lead. Milan don’t look like they will nullify the one-goal lead. In the ninety-fourth minute, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic held on to the ball for a little bit longer.
In the ninety-sixth minute, the whistle was blown. It’s 1-0 to Napoli who leapfrog Milan into second spot with five wins on the bounce.
Ore M. 
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