Abuse Milan's Rafael Leao at your peril (2024)

The fireworks let off throughout the night outside the Grand Hotel Vesuvius did not cause Rafael Leao to lose any sleep. As he came through the foyer the following afternoon, his headphones on, perhaps listening to one of his own tracks, some locals aimed deplorable monkey chants at him. On the bus to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, a moped came alongside, its driver somehow managing to stay on the road while carrying a red and black coffin. The intention was to bury AC Milan.

But the intimidation didn’t work. When this Milan side have their backs against the wall, as they did in both legs of this Champions League quarter-final, they find a way out.

Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti recognised his team needed to make a couple of adjustments after last week’s 1-0 defeat at San Siro. He highlighted “Milan’s transitions, which are different from any other team. They have a shape to them, a motor, a skill.” Beep, beep. They have Rafa Leao.

Not that Napoli need any reminder.

He tore into them in the 4-0 Serie A victory that kickstarted a run of three meetings in less than two and a half weeks, and helped decide the first leg of this tie, too: after 24 minutes of relentless Napoli pressure, the awkwardest of first touches drew Amir Rrahmani out of position and Leao was away, zooming between him and Andre-Frank Anguissa. Leao pulled his shot wide and kicked the corner flag into smithereens in fury. It scared Napoli and shifted momentum.

On another note, Spalletti did not understand why Istvan Kovacs, the Romanian referee, resisted showing Leao a yellow card for that, particularly as he later thought nothing of flashing one at Kim Min-jae and a couple at Anguissa, ruling both players out of the return fixture. Not too long after the San Siro groundsman planted a new corner flag, Leao set up Ismael Bennacer’s winner, the only goal of the game and the source of Milan’s slender advantage down in Naples six days later.

Great players manage to affect games regardless of all the meticulous preparation that goes into limiting them. Everyone knew which way Arjen Robben was going to go and in the end, knowledge wasn’t power. Opponents were still powerless.

On Tuesday at the Maradona, Milan again found themselves under assault for the first 20 minutes.

It led goalkeeper Mike Maignan to pause for breath before restarting play. He wanted to disrupt Napoli’s rhythm and after one shrewd piece of time-wasting, the “goalkeeping playmaker”, as Spalletti called him on the eve of the game, started a move that ended with Leao nutmegging Mario Rui and winning a penalty. Unfortunately for the travelling fans, Alex Meret saved Olivier Giroud’s effort and then denied him again in a one-v-one situation provoked by a rare high press.

As Milan’s big-game player, Giroud’s misses and the way they got the crowd bouncing threatened to whip up the belief that it was going to be Napoli’s night — but Leao snuffed it out.

How embarrassing that was for Juan Jesus, the centre-back standing in for Kim. Jesus had been part of the Romantada five years ago, when Roma reached a Champions League semi-final with a stunning comeback from a 4-1 first-leg defeat to Barcelona at the Camp Nou. On the eve of this second leg, the Brazilian provocatively suggested overturning Milan’s lead would be “easier” than what Roma achieved against “Messi and Iniesta’s Barca”.

Leao made it harder by seizing on Tanguy Ndombele’s inability to trap a pass from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. He left the on-loan Tottenham midfielder in his wake, accelerating like a jet ski out in the Bay of Naples. Leao rounded Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo like he wasn’t there, held off Rrahmani, and took out Meret by feinting to shoot. He then set Giroud up for a ‘rigore in movimento’ — a running penalty — against a desperate Jesus, who was backpedalling into an empty net.

Giroud wasn't going to miss that one!

Leão with one of the best solo runs you will ever see 😍#UCL pic.twitter.com/W4i9QLFnb2

— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 18, 2023

A devastating slalom of 74 metres and 11 touches saw Leao humiliate three Napoli players and meant he assisted both the goals that decided this quarter-final, home and away.

The action reminded Billy Costacurta, a Milan great, of a run Ruud Gullit went on against the same opponents at this ground before setting up Marco van Basten in an epic 3-2 win in May 1988. “It’s unbelievable to be compared with such an important player who made history at this club,” Leao said.

Spalletti lamented the naivety that cost his team. Rui’s half-hearted challenge on Brahim Diaz contributed to the goal that decided the first leg and he was fortunate Meret bailed him out here after he gave the penalty away. Ndombele’s fleeting lapse of concentration then undid his goalkeeper’s heroics from the spot.

Even so, Napoli are entitled to feel hard done by.

There were the harsh suspensions of Kim and Anguissa, not to mention the absence of an injured Victor Osimhen — whose 93rd-minute equaliser last night came too late — for that opener in Milan a week ago. Injuries to Rui and Matteo Politano early in the second leg didn’t help, either. Leao was also lucky the VAR did not consider a sliding tackle on Hirving Lozano worthy of a penalty award.

That Leao was putting his body on the line in the first place was symbolic of Milan’s exceptional defensive performance. Stefano Pioli recently said he never wants to see Leao behind the ball, but a player frequently criticised for not tracking back helped out in that regard on Tuesday night. It was necessary. Napoli had 37 shots and 25 corners over the two legs.

As important to Milan’s progress to their first Champions League semi-final since the last time they lifted the trophy 16 years ago was Maignan, whose late save to deny Di Lorenzo last week was bettered by his 82nd-minute penalty stop against Kvaratskhelia.

The Georgian missed from the spot, as he did away to Eintracht Frankfurt in the previous round. Tipped to take Leao’s crown as Serie A MVP, Kvaratskhelia was not up to the ridiculous standards he has set for himself this season in either leg of this tie and struggled up against Milan captain Davide Calabria.

Leao, on the other hand, used this quarter-final to give the kind of statement performance his Champions League career had so far been lacking.

It has not been an easy 2023 for him.

Pioli dropped him to the bench in the Derby della Madonnina against neighbours Inter in February and then switched him from left wing to centre-forward without success — he has just four goals so far this calendar year — as Milan briefly dallied with playing a back three to try to restore some much-needed stability after a rotten February. Speculation about his future was another distraction and his performances suffered. Until, that is, Leao got to play Napoli. They always seem to bring out the best in him.

Inevitably, attention has quickly turned to a contract which expires after next season. Chelsea (naturally) made a bid for him late in the summer but Leao isn’t agitating to leave.

“Pioli made me who I am today,” he said in gratitude. “He was patient with me and treated me like a son. I have him to thank, as well as Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara (Milan’s technical director and sporting director respectively). I owe it to them.

“I feel at home at AC Milan and I’m happy here. I still have one year left. We are talking and there are things to settle. What matters most now is that we are in the semi-finals. It’s a great season and I want to continue to help the team.”

(Top photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)

James Horncastle covers Serie A for The Athletic. He joins from ESPN and is working on a book about Roberto Baggio.