AC Milan v Napoli – Preview, Prediction, TV Listings, Betting Odds – Serie A – 5 February 2012
AC Milan are averaging over two goals per match as they host 7th place Napoli in the Italian Serie A. The match will take place at San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy on Sunday, February 5, 2012. Kickoff is scheduled for 09:00 EST (USA Eastern), 14:00 GMT (UK time), and 15:00 CET (Central Europe).
AC Milan v Napoli TV Listings
The match will be televised on ESPN (UK), Fox Soccer Plus (USA), Digi Sport (Romania/Slovakia/Czech Republic/Hungray), C+ (Finland/Spain/Poland/Norway), Sky Sport (Italy), Canal 9 (Denmark), SuperSport (Africa), Sport TV4 (Portugal), Sport 2 (Israel), TV4 Sport (Sweden), and Al Jazeera Sport (Middle East).
AC Milan v Napoli Preview
AC Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri
“In the five games played, we played them well and except for the match in Bergamo, we won them all quite easily. In the two games we lost we paid a high price for the mistakes made. The team is in the semi-final of the Italian Cup, the last 16 of the Champions League and has one point less than this time last year.”
“They’ve done all they can to get the pitch ready at the San Siro ahead of the game. Necessity is the mother of invention and we’ll try and play a big game to get back winning because we’ll be up against a team that has important qualities both individually and collectively. There’s a possible gap of more than 15 points between Napoli and the top spot so they could get back into the top spots. It’ll be harder for them this year because they’re in three competitions and maybe they’re not used to that but they’re having a good year and they played well on Wednesday.
“I’m not worried about the criticism. It’s normal that when a team loses, the first man in the cross hairs is the coach, but we’ve been through worse moments. We have a few absences that don’t allow me to change the team from game to game but we have players who know how to play well when they’re called upon. I’m satisfied with how we’re doing but in football everyone has an opinion and they can change from day to day. A team doesn’t become bad after one loss. We need balance now that we’re coming from a loss but we need that even if we had won 10 in a row.
“Football is not basketball. Changing for the sake of it is not a good idea and also I believe that I’m able to get the best out of this team’s characteristics from the players I have available. The team is used to playing like this, the only change is a trequartista.”
I definitely don’t feel like Antonio Conte is making fun of me. I just look at my house and not the others. In any case, I believe he underestimates his team by continuing to say that we’re the favourites and I don’t think it’s good to underestimate your players.”
“It’s impossible to work on the players’ fitness as we have a game every three days. We have to stay calm and anyway, there’s no reason to be alarmed. There’s still a lot of points up for grabs. We need to understand our mistakes and learn from them. We’re a team that fighting on all fronts and that makes me happy.”
The team is fine and they’re working well. At the moment, we have certain players with certain characteristics available. The three up front in Novara played a good game in the second half and they played well in Rome as well. From the players I have available I’ll obviously be asking for different things than I would from Boateng.”
Ibra plays well with Robinho and El Shaarway and I think he’ll play well with Maxi Lopez. We’re waiting for Pato to come back and he’s making progress. In any case, Ibra can play well with anyone.”
“The ref are doing their job well and obviously there will be mistakes made in your favour or against you. But if you look back at the end of the season, they even themselves out.”
“At the moment, the injury situation is not clear. No one has come back yet and It’s hard to see anyone back for the game against Arsenal. It’s not good to build up expectations if the players won’t be available. They’re all working together to get back as soon as they can and I hope it’ll be sooner rather than later.”
“Tomorrow I’ll have 4 midfielders available and I’ll have to decide which one doesn’t play. There’ll be two strikers as well.”
“Going back to Wednesday’s game, I subbed Ambrosini and El Shaarawy because I thought that with Emanuelson and Seedorf we could have got back in the game but the changes didn’t work.”
“We don’t have any problems but we definitely need to improve, as always, because this is a team that has potential to do better. Maybe we weren’t competitive enough in the last few games, even those we won. Sometimes without realising it you try a bit less if you know that you can win the game in any moment but then things can change and you concede. You have to keep the attention level high always.”
“I think that last year when Ibra was suspended, Pato and Robinho filled the gap. This year Pato has never been available and Robinho has been out for two months. Until now the midfield has picked up the slack. We just need to be more careful and not concede a goal from the first mistake we make.”
I hope that next Wednesday it’ll be less cold. An emergency situation like this only lasts for a week and not for a month and they’ve moved all kick offs to the afternoon which is the right thing to do.”
“I’m calm and aware of what we’ve done and where we’ve slipped up and where we can improve as well as the importance of the match on 26 February.”
“It seems to me that the important thing is not the number of points we have but our position in the table on 13 May, whether we ahead of or behind Juventus. The head to head will be big but what counts is the end result. This year we’ve picked up more points against the small teams and less against the big, last year it was the opposite. I don’t know if we’ll be back on top if we win the next three games. We have to take it one game at a time.”
Team Serie A Stats
| AC Milan | Napoli | |
|---|---|---|
| Matches Played | 21 | 21 |
| Table Position | 2 | 7 |
| Points | 43 | 30 |
| Goal Difference | 24 | 12 |
| Goals for * | 2.4 | 1.5 |
| Goals against * | 0.5 | 1.1 |
| Last 5 | L-W-W-L-W | D-L-D-D-W |
| Last 5 home | W-L-W-W-W | D-D-W-L-W |
| Last 5 away | L-W-W-W-D | L-D-W-D-D |
| * Goals per match – home matches for home club and away matches for away club | ||
| AC Milan | Napoli | |
|---|---|---|
| Goals | Zlatan Ibrahimovic 15 | Edinson Cavani 12 |
| Assists | Antonio Cassano 7 | Marek Hamsik 5 |
| Yellows | Alessandro Nesta 6 | Ezequiel Lavezzi 5 |
| Reds | Kevin-Prince Boateng 2 | Mario Santana 1 |
Upcoming Serie A Fixtures
| AC Milan | Napoli | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2/5 | Napoli | 2/5 | @AC Milan |
| 2/11 | @Udinese | 2/13 | Chievo Verona |
| 2/19 | @Cesena | 2/17 | @Fiorentina |
| 2/25 | Juventus | 2/26 | Internazionale |
| 3/3 | @Palermo | 3/4 | @Parma |
AC Milan v Napoli Prediction
AC Milan wins 3-1
AC Milan v Napoli Betting Odds
AC Milan win – 4/6
Draw – 12/5
Napoli win – 15/4
