Napoli put themselves in a commanding position with goals from Matteo Politano and Romelu Lukaku in the first half, which gave Milan a mountain to climb as they so often have had under Sergio Conceicao.
The Rossoneri squandered a big opportunity to get back into the game when Santiago Gimenez missed a penalty off the bench, meaning that Luka Jovic’s late goal ended up being just a consolation.
The result means that Milan remain in ninth position, and fourth spot is now nine points away. Champions League football has almost definitely vanished, with a Coppa Italia semi-final against Inter looming.
Conceicao made four changes to the starting line-up from the team that beat Como before the break, with Strahinja Pavlovic coming in at centre-back, Youssouf Fofana in the midfield, Joao Felix on the wing and Tammy Abraham up front.
It took Napoli just 60 seconds to take the lead, and the goal came from Politano. A long ball over the top from Di Lorenzo nestled between Theo Hernandez and Pavlovic and neither committed to making a challenge, allowing the winger to latch onto it and fire into the bottom right corner from just inside the area.
Milan then had a good spell of possession as they set about in search of an equaliser. A nice move down the right side ended with a cross from Kyle Walker in towards Abraham, that the English striker didn’t quite connect properly with and appeals for a corner fell on deaf ears.
Napoli came close to doubling their advantage in the 15th minute as Milan failed to clear a corner properly and a cross from the right flank was met by an audacious backheel from Anguissa that went just wide with Maignan rooted to the line
In the 19th minute, it was 2-0 to the home side as Romelu Lukaku continued his trend of hurting Milan. Once again the defence parted like the red sea, allowing the Belgian striker to drop into a space around the penalty spot and finish past Maignan with a scuffed shot that seemed to wrong-foot him.
Milan’s attempts to get back into the game were futile and restricted to set pieces mostly, such as when Pavlovic glanced a header that flew past everyone and ultimately went out for a throw-in. A few minutes before the break, Lukaku got a yellow card for a rash challenge on Warren Bondo.
Conceicao’s theme of needing to make half-time changes persisted, as he opted to bring Rafael Leao on for Bondo, with Reijnders dropping into the midfield.
Moments after Theo went down appealing for a free-kick deep in the Napoli half, two more substitutes were brought on. Samuel Chukwueze and Santiago Gimenez came on, with Felix and Abraham coming off.
Just before the hour mark, the substitute Gimenez was presented with a big chance to halve the deficit. A nice move down the left side saw Leao and Reijnders link up well to find Chukwueze, who just about got the ball through to the Mexican striker. However, he laced his left-footed shot high and wide from about 18 yards out.
Milan were presented with a chance to get themselves back into the game with just over 20 minutes left when Billing brought down Theo inside the box for a penalty. Pulisic didn’t take the spot kick though and instead handed it to Gimenez, who saw his weak spot kick saved by Meret.
Just after Pavlovic had forced Meret to tip a rising shot over the bar, Luka Jovic and Alex Jimenez came on for Pulisic and Walker as the final two rolls of the dice.
In the 84th minute, Milan get up an exciting finish with a lovely team goal. A one-two between Leao and Theo saw the latter go through to the byline and cut back a ball to Jovic and Gimenez who were both waiting for a tap-in, which the Serbian got in the end.
The final chance for the Diavolo to get something from the game came in added time when Jovic received the ball with his back to goal, turned and unleashed a rocket of a shot that sailed wide of the top corner.
