MY ACCOUNT
Milan coach Stefano Pioli is embracing his team’s history of fulfilling their dreams as they prepare to face Napoli in the Champions League quarter-finals as underdogs.
With Napoli running away with the Serie A title, sitting 16 points clear already, Milan are generally considered outsiders for their upcoming Champions League duel.
But Milan beat Napoli 4-0 at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona as recently as April 2 in a major shock, and the Partenopei will once again be without talismanic striker Victor Osimhen.
Milan not being favourites is no issue for Pioli, however, as he pointed to their Scudetto success last season as being somewhat out of the ordinary.
Asked what he was expecting from Wednesday’s contest at San Siro, Pioli told reporters: “I think we’ll see balance.
“It’s the first of two matches. It’s impossible to repeat matches from in the league – we know we have to play a great game.
“We have to play a great game because the opponents require a great level of play. Napoli are the team with the best attack in the Champions League and who have won the most games after Bayern. They are a very strong team, they have great quality.
“We also need to be attentive. Napoli have great quality and know how to take advantage of every mistake.
“Serie A is another story. I think we have every chance to play and do well in the two games. With the power of our dreams we won the Scudetto last year, so dreaming is good for us.”
The absence of Osimhen is a particularly significant boost for Milan, given Napoli had expected him to be fit again for the first leg after sustaining an abductor injury on international duty.
Osimhen has been a huge factor in Napoli’s remarkable charge at the top of the Serie A table, with Luciano Spalletti’s men closing in on a first Scudetto since 1990.
Osimhen has scored 25 times across all competitions, with none of those goals coming from the penalty spot – among players from the top five leagues, only Erling Haaland (38), Kylian Mbappe (28), Marcus Rashford (27) and Robert Lewandowski (26) have netted more non-penalty goals than the Nigerian.
Nevertheless, the defeat to Milan earlier this month was the only match Napoli have failed to win out of nine without Osimhen this term, and this was not lost on Pioli.
“We’re talking about a great centre-forward, he’s scored repeatedly both in the league and in the Champions League [but], up until the match against us, Napoli had always won without Osimhen,” Pioli told Sky Sport Italia.
“We’re talking about a great team that has all the qualities to be fearsome.”
He added: “The preparation has always been the same. With Osimhen, Napoli are stronger in depth, without him a little less. We keep everything in consideration, but we go ahead with our own concepts.”
