Serie A: Naples extinguishes AC Milan and takes off at the top of the standings

Serie A is once again visible on French screens, and it started this evening on the 10th day, with a clash between AC Milan and Naples. That is to say the 8th against the 1st, and a challenge especially for Paulo Fonseca, the coach of the Rossoneri, more and more contested, after an average start to the season. He is not helped by the hazards of injuries and suspensions either, since for this match against the leader, he was deprived of, among others, Reinjders and Théo Hernandez, while Pulisic, suffering from the flu, took his place on the bench.

Antonio Conte, for his part, relied on a solid eleven, like Romelu Lukaku, his favorite striker. And we understand that the two men like each other since the trust is mutual. The Belgian striker opened the scoring in the 5th minute. Well launched by Anguissa, he sent Pavlovic flying, and shot flat with his left foot to deceive Maignan, uninspired a few seconds earlier by losing a very dangerous ball at the entrance to his area. AC Milan then saw the gap that separated it from a dominant team, even though the excessive activity of Morata and a few tumbles from Chukwueze bothered the Neapolitan defense at times.

Naples offers an 8th clean sheet this season

The Lombard club had a good period of around fifteen minutes at the heart of the first period, but did not score. Then Naples was once again making gunfire. Kvaratskhelia, discreet until then, skirted the entrance to the Milan area and sent a curling strike to the opposite post, on which Maignan was again not imperial (0-2, 43rd). A goal at the start and end of the period, and Naples put Milan on 11 points in the championship. San Siro still had the opportunity to vibrate at the start of the second period with a goal from Morata, on a service from Chukwueze, until the VAR canceled the goal for a prior offside by the Spanish international.

This had the merit of definitively boosting the sharper Rossoneri. But Naples continued to appear threatening on the counterattack. McTominay also had a great opportunity on a serve from Kvaratskhelia. Paulo Fonseca then launched Pulisic, even ill, and Rafael Leão, even less good lately, to try to reverse the score. The American was struggling to destabilize the Neapolitan rearguard, but it became impenetrable under Conte’s orders. The score no longer moved. With this victory, Naples is already 7 points ahead of Inter and 8 over Juventus (who have not yet played this 10th day of Serie A), while Milan is sinking into the start of a crisis, which could already be fatal to Paulo Fonseca…