As the season heads towards its conclusion Napoli hosted AC Milan with very high hopes after being undefeated all season at the San Paolo.
However, AC Milan had other ideas and managed to walk away from Naples with a point continuing their unbeaten run. This was an important game for Napoli after Juventus was held to a draw against Bologna, however, the home side couldn’t take advantage of this and were also kept to a 1-1 draw even with a heavy shot count in their favour.
Lorenzo Insigne’s goal gave Naoli the advantage but this didn’t last long with Milan equalising, against the run of play, six minutes later. The teams couldn’t be split in the second half, which would have left AC Milan happy to take a point away from Napoli.
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Napoli
Pepe Reina – 6: Didn’t have a big workload but the goal he conceded would be disappointing being at his near post and he could have done a little better with it
Elseid Hysaj – 7: One of his better games, very good going forward but his defensive work rate was a little poor
Kalidou Koulibaly – 6: Also didn’t have a lot to do with the counter attacking football AC played but was still solid
Raul Albiol – 5.5: Beaten a few times by Niang early on which put Napoli under pressure
Faouzi Goulham – 6: Similar to Hysaj; his attacking support was good but defensively there are still some questions
Allan- 6: Subbed at the 80 minute mark, he has played better games but still relatively solid in the centre of midfield
Jorginho – 6.5: He didn’t make a huge attacking impact on this match although he did control the play fairly well
Marek Hamsik – 6.5: Solid as always for him, played well although couldn’t be the difference between the teams in this one
Jose Callejon – 4.5: Subbed off just after the hour. Another performance where he struggled to get into the groove of the match. His few chances weren’t taken well despite being on target
Gonzalo Higuain – 6.5: Was dangerous as always, however, took some speculative shots that probably weren’t there for the taking
Lorenzo Insigne- 6: Subbed off just before the 90th minute. Played alright but got predictable after a while
https://youtu.be/JQIaQ-gjbrE
Substitutes
Dries Mertens – 6.5: Given a little more time than he normally gets, played well and showed that he deserves a start
Manolo Gabbiadini – N/A: Didn’t get a chance to show what he could do
Omar El Kaddouri – N/A: Didn’t have enough game time to impact this match
AC Milan
Gianluigi Donnarumma – 8.5: Very strong performance from the 16-year-old. Although the shot was hit mostly at him he saved the point for AC Milan
Cristian Zapata – 6.5: Was strong in the backline against the likes of Higuain and held his own starting for Romagnoli
Ignazio Abate – 7: Had a good cover over Insigne and rarely let him set up much which the Napoli attack is used to
Luca Antonelli – 5.5: Fairly quiet on his left side of the field which was mostly due to a lack of play on that wing
Alex – 6: Did a decent job but didn’t have lots of work to do, which is what you want as a defender
Keisuke Honda – 5.5: Picked up his game late in the second half but was very distant in the first half
Riccardo Montolivo – 5: Subbed at the 82nd minute, didn’t play a great game. His free kick delivery in particular was poor and he didn’t have much other impact on the match
Juraj Kucka – 5: Fairly poor, didn’t use the ball well and was a bit quiet throughout the game.
Giacomo Bonaventura – 7: AC Milan’s goalscorer. It was a very well finished goal although the defence was very limited
Mbaye Niang – 7.5: Subbed just after the 86th minute. He was AC Milan’s best player today, he ran hard on the counter and brought them their best chances of the game
Carlos Bacca – 5.5: Taken off after 70 minutes. Didn’t play badly but wasn’t very prominent in the counter attacking style AC played
Substitutes
Jeremy Menez – N/A: Although on for 20+ minutes, the ball didn’t come his way much
Andrea Bertalacci – N/A: Came on too late to make a difference
Mario Ballotelli – N/A: Wasn’t on the field long enough to make any difference to this match
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