Napoli v Milan: Champions League quarter-final, second leg – live

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“How did you get this game to cover?!!” says Jeff Sax. “Enjoy.”

I tugged my forelock very, very hard. It still hurts, but it was worth it.

These are the people on a yellow card, who will miss the first leg of the semi-final if they are booked tonight. After last week’s first leg, which included seven bookings and a red card, there are quite a few.

Napoli Juan Jesus, Amir Rrahmani, Matteo Politano.

Milan Davide Calabria, Fikayo Tomori, Rade Krunic, Sandro Tonali, Fode Ballo-Toure, Stefano Pioli.

Yep, even one of the coaches in on a yellow card.

Team news: Osimhen starts, Milan unchanged

The big news, which you’ll know already as it’s in bold right above this sentence, is that Victor Osimhen starts up front for Napoli. He replaces Elif Elmas in one of four changes from the first leg. Juan Jesus and Tanguy Ndombele are in for the suspended Kim Min-jae and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, and Matteo Politano is preferred to Hirving Lozano as the right-sided attacker.

Milan, who rested all their outfield players against Bologna at the weekend, are unchanged from the first leg.

Napoli (4-3-3) Meret; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Juan, Mario Rui; Ndombele, Lobotka, Zielinski; Politano, Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia.

Substitutes: Raspadori, Lozano, Gaetano, Elmas, Ostigard, Olivera, Bereszynski, Idasiak, Gollini.

AC Milan (4-2-3-1) Maignan; Calabria, Kjaer, Tomori, Hernandez; Krunic, Tonali; Diaz, Bennacer, Leao; Giroud.

Substitutes: Mirante, Ballo, Rebic, Kalulu, Florenzi, Origi, Thiaw, Junior Messias, Pobega, Gabbia, Saelemaekers, De Ketelaere.

Referee Szymon Marciniak (Poland)

Preamble

Tonight, dear reader, you’ll be needing some popcorn. It’s Napoli v Milan for a place in the Champions League semi-finals, so you should expect most if not all of the following: drama, intensity, brilliance, controversy, aggro, a brawl.

It’s a shame Diego isn’t here to see it. He absolutely loved vaccinating Milan and, on some level, I suspect he quite enjoyed it when Milan vaccinated him too. Maradona was the central figure in an exhilarating, sometimes vicious rivalry between these two in the late 1980s and (very) early 1990s. Serie A at that time was as strong as any domestic league has ever been, and Napoli v Milan was the biggest club game in world football.

Serie A hasn’t been the best in the world for a while, but Italian football will always have a uniquely intense flavour. That’s why those of us who grew up watching it on BSkyB and Channel 4 have a mouth full of water right now. That and the prospect of watching, among others, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Rafael Leao, Sandro Tonali and – crucially for Napoli – Victor Osimhen.

We don’t yet know whether Osimhen will start – he has played only 17 minutes since injuring his knee during the international break – but his presence on the bench, at the very least, should relax a Napoli side that has failed to score in three of the last four games.

That includes last week’s first leg, an edgy match that ended 1-0 to Milan. They also won here 4-0 at the start of April, a barely believable result against the will-be champions, but Napoli will be able to rationalise that this is the real quiz.

Tonight’s winners play Inter Milan (probably) or Benfica in the semis. Milan’s last Champions League semi-final was in 2007; Napoli have never been in one.

Kick off 8pm.