Milan looking to bounce back in Naples

AC Milan face the tricky trip south to Naples on Monday looking to prove they have learnt their lessons from their Champions League chastisement in Madrid.

Milan were well beaten in a 2-0 reverse against Jose Mourinho’s Real on Tuesday with coach Massimiliano Allegri claiming his team played as if it were a friendly.

The rossoneri sit second in Serie A, two points behind surprise early leaders Lazio and goals scored ahead of city rivals Inter Milan.

Napoli are fourth, just a couple of points behind the Milan teams.

But they too were disappointing in their 0-0 Europa League draw with a severely weakened Liverpool on Thursday.

Napoli took a long time to pose any threat to Liverpool and only really created two or three chances in the whole game, although the English did no better.

Still, Napoli are usually a tough prospect at home and last season staged a remarkable injury time comeback from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Milan.

And the visitor’s vice-president Adriano Galliani is adament Milan must improve from Tuesday’s showing.

“It’s not that we must forget Madrid, we lost a game but it’s not a drama,” he said.

“We need to do better but the main thing to forget is the first few minutes which shocked us because when you concede two goals in two minutes you risk an avalanche.

“In that moment I was afraid it would finish five or six nil. But then little by little we recovered, we had the chance to pull one back through Ibra (Zlatan Ibrahimovic) and had he scored that could have opened the way for an equaliser.

“We saw what happened at the San Siro with Tottenham down to 10 men against 11 and scored three goals, including two in two minutes.

“Football is very strange. Last year I left after 90 minutes with us leading 2-0 with, if I’m not mistaken, four minutes of injury time to come.

“I left with it 2-0 only to later find out it finished 2-2.”

With Napoli realistically aiming to qualify for the Champions League this season, Galliani knows this game is important, but he shied away from putting too much emphasis on what will be only their eighth match of this campaign.

“Is it vital, yes but let’s not call every game vital otherwise everyone of 38 league games and all the Champions League and Cup games are also vital,” he added.

“We’re at the eighth game of the season, we’re playing Napoli who are fourth and doing very well.

“It’s a difficult match, we know that, but we need to be leading on May 22, 2011, after 38 games.

“This Napoli game is certainly important but we’re playing every three days and we’re ready.”

Following their efforts against Liverpool, Napoli will be hard pushed to match the high standards they have mostly displayed this season.

And coach Walter Mazzarri admitted as much following the draw with the Reds.

“Don’t forget that we’re a young team and that many of our lads aren’t used to European competition, nor playing every three days,” he said.

“This adventure needs to be seen as a great opportunity to improve.”

If Napoli are to seriously threaten the upper echelons of Serie A this season, they will have to learn those lessons quickly.