The fact that these two sides so recently played each other could be a wonderful thing for the tie. Normally we’d expect the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final tie to be cagey, the two teams tend to be finding each other out for at least the first half.

These teams know everything about each other as they have already played each other twice this season. There is no reason for either team to be cagey or tentative.

The fact that Milan won 4-0 at the Maradona means that playing at home, there is no logic behind Milan sitting deep and seeing if they can grab a draw or a narrow win here. They know they have the tools to hurt Napoli and they can’t work on the basis that Napoli will suddenly be much better this time around.

As for Napoli, this is a two-legged revenge mission. The 4-0 may mean nothing at the end of the season, but no one likes to lose 4-0. The Partenopei also know full well that they are a better team than Milan this season and that is still the case even if they have no Victor Osimhen leading the line.

Luciano Spalletti should be aiming to come away with a victory here and if the teams start the game with those two mindsets, it should be open and flowing. With the attacking quality on the pitch, that should lead to goals.

For someone that has been enjoying a frankly ridiculous first season in Serie A, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has actually been suffering a light dip in form in recent weeks.

There was a spell from mid-January to mid-February where in five Serie A games, he got four goals and four assists. In the next six games, in which he played almost every available minute, he got two goals and one assist.

It’s not that he hasn’t been scoring and assisting at all and can be considered out of form, he just seems to be slightly less prolific than before. He has looked dangerous in every game though and it has the feeling of a player who is about to explode again.

In such a big game, against an opponent in Rafael Leao who he was upstaged by so recently, expect the Georgian to be more up for this one than ever before. All the talk in the run-up to the Serie A fixture centred around his record compared to Leao and how much better he was doing. The Portuguese then scored twice whilst Kvaratskhelia was absent.

We know how good he is, though, the winger has got 14 goals and 16 assists so far this season across Serie A and the Champions League. You should always back him to score and assist and he has reason to be pent up coming into this one.

There is so much more to Ismael Bennacer’s game than just his combative qualities but unfortunately, when it comes to placing bets on him, it’s usually safe to think he’s going to commit a couple of fouls and maybe get a yellow card.

The Algerian midfielder is often the man who brings the energy to the AC Milan midfield along with Sandro Tonali but with the latter being the more creative of the two, it is Bennacer who has to do a lot of the ugly work to break up the opposition attacks.

He has committed 34 fouls in Serie A so far this season which means only 22 players in the whole league have committed more. The majority of them are forwards who commit silly fouls when chasing a loose ball. For Bennacer, they can be more tactical and more symptomatic of the job he does for his team.

He will certainly be starting the game in the midfield, possibly further forward than is normal. Pioli could play Tonali and Rade Krunic in a double pivot with Bennacer as the number 10, but even if that proves to be the case, Bennacer will be tracking back a lot and will almost certainly be dragging the odd player down to lessen the pressure on his team.