ISmaël Bennacer scorer, Zambo Anguissa excluded. PANORAMIC
TOPS/FLOPS – Ismaël Bennacer and Mike Maignan decisive for Milan against Anguissa and Kim Min-Jae at fault on the Napoli side, find the Tops / Flops of Milan AC Napoli.
TOPS
Bennacer, unexpected goalscorer
Even if he only played 66 minutes this Wednesday evening, Ismaël Bennacer will have been the author of a sacred performance at all levels. In the aggressiveness and slaughter in the middle of the field first (despite a very sluggish start to the match for the Milanese) then by becoming the scorer of the evening in the 40th minute of a meeting which he himself unblocked and closed , scoring the only goal of the evening.
Imperial Mike Maignan
If AC Milan can boast of not having conceded a goal from the best attack in the Champions League this season, it is undoubtedly thanks to their super French goalkeeper. Imperial as usual, Mike Maignan will have underlined in bold the absence of a real attacker like Victor Osimhen. However, the Neapolitans struggled to try to deceive the former LOSC goalkeeper. Solid in the first half against Napoli’s crazy start (same thing in the second period), Maignan took out parade after parade when necessary and especially in the 86th minute when the whole stadium thought it was watching the captain’s equalizer opponent Giovanni Di Lorenzo, on a strike that ended his race in the back of the net without a masterful tap from the one who did it again after saving the French team in Ireland a few days ago.
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Brahim Diaz, the praise of technique
The small Spanish midfielder (1m71) simply strolled Mario Rui in great difficulty throughout the match. And in particular on the Milan goal where he is at the origin of everything with an oriented control which eliminates two players (Lobotka and Rui) and allows him to go forty meters with the ball before serving Léão who himself served Bennacer for the only goal of the evening. Brahim Diaz is in great shape and repeats when he had already scored against Naples ten days earlier during the Milan victory (4-0) in the league).
FLOPS
Zambo anguissa, unfortunate culprit
Let’s be honest, without his red card, the former Marseille player would never have taken his place in the flops tonight. Admittedly, his second yellow card received only a few moments after the first, seems very severe in slow motion, but he was guilty of two successive fouls on Théo Hernandez leaving his partners at 10 during the last quarter of an hour. Unfortunately for him and his team, he will obviously not be present on the return to Naples in front of his supporters to try to reverse the trend.
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Kim Min Jae, also suspended
He too will not be part of the return to Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. The Korean defender Kim Min Jae was for the first time guilty of an excess of commitment there also severely sanctioned without costing him a card. Only after this whistle, which did not please him at all, the former Fenerbaçhe defender complained strongly to the referee, prompting Mr. Kovacs to send him a yellow card synonymous with suspension, he who was the only one under threat in his team.
Elmas, alone in the world
The Macedonian looked very lonely in front of the Napoli attack in the absence of Victor Osimhen and showed that Napoli are not the same team without their Nigerian striker. The activity of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will not have been enough, he will simply have missed a number 9, which Eljif Elmas is not in his defense. Very little in sight, Elmas certainly did not convince his coach to reposition him in this position later at the end of the season.