AC Milan Draw 2-2 With Napoli As Giroud Shines But The Defence Collapses

AC Milan travelled to face current Serie A champions Napoli at the Maradona yesterday. The Rossoneri were reeling from two losses to Juventus and Paris St-Germain with questions arising of their lack of bite in front of goal.

Milan started the game well with intensity and lots of chances created in attacked. Napoli cracked under the pressure as Christian Pulisic’s cross from the right was met with a strong header from Olivier Giroud which Meret failed to keep out despite getting a palm to it for us to go up 1-0. Giroud doubled our lead just a few minutes later as Davide Calabria delivered a nice cross and Giroud knocked it a sublime header which hit the back post and went in. Milan were up 2-0 with over 15 minutes to go in the first half. In those 15 minutes, Milan had two more golden opportunities which went begging from Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao.

Napoli came out firing in the second half while Milan stumbled. Marco Pellegrino had a baptism by fire as he was destroyed by Politano in the box as Napoli pulled one back. A little while later they equalised thanks to a brilliant Raspadori free kick that caught Mike Maignan flat footed. Theo Hernandez missed a big chance in between those two goals to keep us ahead.

Milan struggled in the second half and only had half chances. The team dropped points but in particular Hernandez, Leao and Krunic put in dismal performances. Pellegrino was an emergency but he struggled when defending despite showing good distribution skills. Maignan looked off with a number of errors. Reijnders is wasteful in the final third and often does not provide cover for the defence.

The side fall another spot into 3rd place and now 3 points off the top spot.