Former Milan and Italy national team coach Arrigo Sacchi said that the goal Rafael Leao set up for Olivier Giroud’s in the Champions League against Napoli reminded him of a similar move from Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten against the same opponents over 30 years prior.
The two-time European Cup winner also described what Napoli failed to do to stop the in-form Leao at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Tuesday night.
The sought-after Portuguese carried the ball past several scrambling Napoli players from deep inside his own half, all the way into the opposition penalty area before squaring to Giroud to tuck home from a few yards out to put Milan ahead on the night.
Sacchi told La Gazzetta dello Sport that: “Galliani called me and said: ‘Did you see, Arrigo? Leao and Giroud did just like Gullit and Van Basten!’
“Yes, I answered him, but we played a game of attack, we forced Napoli into their own half, and instead, this Milan mainly defended themselves. The goal is exactly the same: it’s the coincidences of football.”
Sacchi then explained what teams need to do to stop Leao when he is on top of his game and pointed out that Lucian Spalletti might not have set his team up in the right way to nullify the threat from Milan’s left wing.
“There are two ways to stop Leao,” he said. “Anticipation or doubling up on the marking. Napoli didn’t make any of these moves and conceded goals.
“And then Spalletti’s team was slow, too slow. How do you organise the press and defend well in those conditions?”
Next in the Champions League, it will be the turn of Inter to try and stop Leao and Milan from progressing to the final.