Who dares is Stefano PiloliNot Luciano Spalletti, never seen so careful. The Napoli coach is on the run to the Scudetto but also from reality once he discovers that the draw for the Champions League pits Napoli against Milan: «The favorites for qualification are the Rossoneri».
But how, his Napoli has a 20-point lead in the league, they won 2-1 in the first leg, and yet the Tuscan coach, making a personal projection, claims his exit poll about the quarter-final against Milan: «Milan he has a great international experience, it will mean something, whoever says we are the favorites is incompetent: just think that Paolo Maldini has won the Champions League 5 times». It’s a pity that Maldini doesn’t play anymore… Stefano Pioli is less imaginative, more attached to the facts, to the reality of the moment: “In the quarter-finals, all teams are difficult to beat. Napoli are strong and dominate the league. But the Champions League is the Champions League and Milan is Milan.”
That reasoning makes no sense, but he himself knows that Napoli is Napoli. Even the bookies know it, to the point that the very Italian Snai, after careful studies and surveys, sentences with his odds: Manchester City are offered at 3.50, Napoli and Bayern Munich at 4.75, so they are second in odds and predictions. Do you know where Milan is? Last at 20. Superstitions, tactics, strange psychology, allow everything in the field of predictions.
But if one evaluates the European path of our three teams involved in the quarter-finals, there are few stories (more than justified if they are made by Spalletti) as Napoli are the big favorites in the double confrontation with Milan. And certainly not because bookmakers from all over Europe support it. Napoli won 7 out of 8 matches in the Champions League, dominated them, played a spectacular game, just like in the league, they convinced everyone, surprised and punished those teams and coaches who showed the talent of Osimhen & Kvaratskhelia. Milan and Pioli will certainly not make such a mistake, far from it, but the advantage of the future Italian champions is clear.
Even Inter knows it, who beat Napoli in the championship. Now it is better that he concentrates on Benfica. She is an adversary within her reach, Simone Inzaghi he knows the Portuguese game perfectly, he has already tamed Porto with merit, effort and, it must be admitted, luck (especially in the last minutes of the second leg): why not push? Inter have the ideal technical dimension to triumph over Benfica, who, never to be forgotten, knocked Juve out of the Champions League. Under the leadership of the German Schmidt, the Portuguese team plays modern football, few passes and is in goal, knows how to defend itself intelligently, is judged as the revelation of the season (at European level even more presumptuous the surprise effect of Napoli).
But if Inter puts behind them the laziness, jealousy that sometimes rears its head, playing as a team, they can do it easily and get into the semi-finals where no one thought they could go. We have to be fair and recognize Simone Inzaghi, still teetering on that couch, the authority of his European journey. That could go on: Snai quotes Inter at 12, Benfica at 15. It must mean something.
Let’s make a predictionbut it’s a game: Benfica-Inter (Inter pass), Napoli-Milan (Naples pass), Manchester City-Bayern Munich (Bayern pass), Real Madrid-Chelsea (Real pass).
Source: Corriere
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