AC Milan edged past Napoli on Wednesday night to take a 1-0 lead with them into the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final.
We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of this season’s three premier European competitions. In the biggest and best, the Champions League, we look set for a remarkable conclusion with all eight remaining clubs being in with a chance of going all the way.
Last night, AC Milan took a big step towards reaching the final four by edging out Napoli at the San Siro. Today, we’ll be taking a look at a few of our biggest takeaways from the game.
Milan stay organised
In addition to Ismael Bennacer’s 40th-minute winner, which came after great work from Brahim Diaz, Milan just felt like the more composed side out there. They had the 4-0 win over Napoli in their heads from just a couple of weeks ago, and they were able to build on that here with a really professional performance. Now, it’s all about whether or not they can protect such a lead in the second leg.
Napoli’s fear?
Napoli came out firing, like a fighter who knows they need to get their opponent out of there in the first round. The Serie A leaders put the pressure on and their best chance came from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the very first minute. Alas, they just weren’t really able to get into a rhythm, and with the red card to go alongside it, this just felt like an outing that stunk of a team who had never been at this level before.
Italian football is back
AC Milan, Napoli and Inter Milan are all in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. It marks the first time that we’ve seen three Italian clubs at this stage since way back in 2006. Plus, with Inter winning against Benfica in their first leg, we are almost guaranteed to see a team from Italy in the final given that the winner of the two ties will meet in the semis. If that doesn’t represent progress, we don’t know what does.