The eyes of the footballing world have been glued on the Italian Serie A as two sleeping giants of Italian football are going head-to-head in a crunch battle for supremacy. Records were broken left, right and center as Juventus dominated the Italian Serie A for nine consecutive seasons from 2012 to 2020. Teams like Napoli, AC Milan, Inter Milan turned out to be hardly any match for the 37-time Italian champions.
After breaking Juventus’ nine-year-hold on the Scudetto last season, Inter Milan have slightly gone off the radar this campaign. But two teams who have impressed football pundits are Napoli and AC Milan. The 18-time champions of Italy are involved in a crunch battle at the top with Napoli. The two-time champions of Italy, Napoli haven’t won the Serie A since the days of Diego Maradona.
At the time of writing, both Napoli and AC Milan have been unbeaten in Serie A after 12 matches. Both teams have had an identical record with 10 wins and two draws from their 12 games. AC Milan last won the title in 2011 when the core of team consisted of Andrea Pirlo, Gattuso and Montelivo. AC Milan have since gone through a phase of transition and have barely challenged for the Scudetto.
This season, both teams possess a strong defense and offense. Napoli’s defense is the best in entire top five leagues of Europe, having conceded just four goals this season in Serie A. Napoli goalkeeper David Ospina has kept league high seven clean sheets with the entire team keeping eight out of 12. Lorenzo Insigne has had 17 shots on target making him the second highest attacking threat in Serie A behind Ciro Immobile. Milan on the other side have showcased their will in attack with 26 goals, only city rivals Inter have scored more goals in Serie A. Theo Hernandez has been outstanding with three assists to his name, highest by any defender in the league.
Both Napoli and AC Milan have a good mixture of youth and experience. Players like Lorenzo Insigne, Kalidou Kouliabely, Dries Mertens can be the difference-makers for Napoli while Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Olivier Giroud, Simon Kjaer could prove handy. The last time Milan lifted the holy prize, Ibrahimovic was their highest scorer with 14 goals. It remains to be seen in whose cabinet the trophy ends up in May, but both Napoli and Milan are promising high-class football.
