It will be the first UEFA Champions League meeting between AC Milan and Napoli and the former will be aiming to emulate their four-goal victory in Naples earlier this month, while the latter who are surely the favourite to be crowned Serie A Champions this season will be seeking to extend some scintillating form in Europe's top club competition. Although their defense of the Italian title has not gone to plan for Milan, they have still managed to navigate their way to the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2012. During their last time out at this stage of the competition, they were eliminated by Pep Guardiola's Barcelona. They last won Europe's most coveted club trophy in 2007 when they emerged victorious over Liverpool. 

Ahead of tonight's match, Milan preserved their place in the top four of the Serie A after their goalless draw at home to Empoli last Friday. They take pride, however, in being one of the few Italian clubs if not European clubs to have beaten Napoli this season, a team that is arguably enjoying the best European form this campaign. Despite landing their visitors a 4-0 psychological blow, he 22-point chasm currently separating them from the Serie A summit means securing a place in next season's Champions League is now the sole domestic focus for Milan, who have already been eliminated from the Coppa Italia. They have, however, proved to be hard to beat in Europe despite a lack of fluency in the Italian league. Milan have managed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last four UCL games. Going into tonight's fixture, they can take confidence from the fact that they have lost only one of nine previous all-Italian match-ups in continental competition. 

Napoli on the other hand will prefer to focus on the fact that Milan have only won three of their 16 most recent Champions League knockout matches and have further failed to score in 10 of those fixtures. The Napoleans have further won 24 out of the played 29 games in the Italian league this season making them one of the most in-form European teams this season notwithstanding the fact that they are the leading scorers in the UCL this season with 25 goals. 

The Italian top of the table, however, will have to do without the services of their top talisman Victor Osimhen who picked up an injury while on international duty representing Nigeria during the international break. As they seek to stay on track on the road to the final in Istanbul, tonight's encounter is arguably when it will matter more than ever in this season's campaign. 

(Image: Sporting News)