Italian Serie A
2013-04-14 - AC Milan vs Napoli
A Sports Betting Pick by Cruiser
Football : Italy Serie A
Venue: Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
Sunday 14th April 2013 – Kickoff time 19:45
Match Preview :
No doubt this will be the match of the week as AC Milan in 3rd place welcomes the visit of Napoli in second place and a defeat for Milan in this match could well end their quest of finishing second this season.
Despite taking a 2-0 lead against Fiorentina in their last match, Milan allowed Fiorentina to come back and the match ended in a 2-2 draw. That brought an end to their five match clean sheets as well as five match winning streak also ended.
Interestingly Milan has yet to draw at home this season! Milan striker Stephan El Shaarawy knows how difficult this game will be when he said that:
"Napoli are a very good team with some quality players and we will have to be very determined. I hope that we win against Napoli and if I score then all the better. The important thing is to win,”
However, Milan were dealt a massive blow coming into the game after it was confirmed that Mario Balotelli would miss the next three games, against Napoli, Juventus and Catania respectively, due to his use of profanities towards match officials.
In Balotelli's absence, Milan will have to hope that the trio of El Shaarawy, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Giampaolo Pazzini will come good in this match and score. But Napoli cannot be taken lightly as their attack have hit 10 goals in their last three League matches.
Napoli comes into this match on the back of three straight wins and their last match saw them beat Genoa 2-0 in which Blerim Dzemaili and Goran Pandev struck the back to increase their lead over Milan to four points now.
Goran Pandev was quoted as saying that the clash against Milan will be a great game because he knows San Siro well.
"We will come up against a strong team, but we will not do calculations - we have to go there only to win,”
However it is so important that Milan gets the win here if they are to avoid the the qualifiers for the UEFA Champions League. Napoli will want to make sure they win this match and build up a seven point lead over Milan and strengthen their position in second spot.
But Milan will want to have the last say and they will not get the draw here [as they have yet to draw at home] and I just cannot see them losing to Napoli here as well, so I will go for them to get the win in this match.
Possible lineups
AC Milan: Abbiati, Abate, Mexes, Zapata, De Sciglio, Flamini, Montolivo, Muntari, Boateng, Pazzini, El Shaarawy
Napoli: De Sanctis, Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Britos, Maggio, Behrami, Dzemaili, Zuniga, Hamsik, Pandev, Cavani
Predictions :
Go for AC Milan to win this match
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Milan 2-1 Napoli
