Milan will aim to close the gap with 2nd-placed Juventus and consolidate their position to secure a top-four finish when they host Napoli at the San Siro.
Milan are unbeaten in their last eight Serie A outings, scoring 17 goals across all the proceedings. It has been a bittersweet new year for the Rossoneri as they earned 13 points from a possible 15 but the Coppa Italia exit with the defeat to Atalanta has left a sour taste. Sitting ten points clear of 4th-placed La Dea, Stefano Pioli’s men are on course to secure Champions League football for next season after suffering an early exit from this campaign’s competition. Milan were made to sweat to get the victory against Frosinone in their previous league encounter. Olivier Giroud and Matteo Gabbia matched up Matias Soule and Luca Mazzitelli’s goals. It took the efforts of substitute Luka Jovic who slotted the winning goal to earn his team the three points.Â
Meanwhile, Napoli enter this match on the back of a comeback 2-1 victory over relegation-threatened Verona. Diego Coppola led the visitors in the 72nd minute, and Pawel Dawidowicz’s own goal levelled the scores seven minutes later. Starman Khvicha Kvaratskhelia was on point to net home the winner as he gave his side renewed hopes of finishing in the European places after going a bit out of course during the first part of the season. Walter Mazzarri could have given Napoli fans something to celebrate in this gloomy campaign but a narrow 1-0 defeat to Inter left them as runners-up of this edition’s Supercoppa Italiana.
Here are the predicted line-ups for the match:
Milan (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Gabbia, Hernandez; Bennacer, Adli; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Giroud
Napoli (3-4-3): Gollini; Ostigard, Rrahmani, Jesus; Di Lorenzo, Anguissa, Lobotka, Mazzocchi; Politano, Simeone, Kvaratskhelia
Â
Trambak Bhattacherjee | GIFN
