Player ratings: Napoli 2-1 Milan – Lukaku landmark, Rossoneri late again

NAPOLI, ITALY – MARCH 30: Romelu Lukaku of Napoli celebrates after scoring his side second goal during the Serie A match between Napoli and AC Milan at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on March 30, 2025 in Napoli, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)

Napoli ensured that there is still pressure on Inter at the top of the Serie A standings with an important 2-1 victory over Milan at the Maradona on Sunday evening, with Matteo Politano and Romelu Lukaku striking in the first half, before Luka Jovic’s late consolation goal. 

Here are the player ratings from Sunday’s Serie A headliner. 

You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog. 

Napoli 

Ratings: Meret 8; Di Lorenzo 7, Rrahamani 6.5, Buongiorno 7, Olivera 6.5; Anguissa 6.5 (Billing 5.5), Lobotka 6, Gilmour 7; Politano 7.5, Lukaku 7, Neres 6.5. 

Best Napoli player: Alex Meret 8 – A second-half penalty save that was just as valuable as a third goal for Napoli at that stage of the game. Not the best penalty from Santiago Gimenez, but the stopper still had a job to do, and did it comfortably. A sound performance from the Napoli keeper all round. 

Coach: Antonio Conte 7.5 – Arguably Napoli’s best performance of the calendar year, particularly in the first half. Even more impressive given the lacklustre form prior to the international break. Napoli were in total control in the first half, and showed their defensive discipline in the second. Slightly silly from the coach to pick up a booking in the second half, which means that he is now suspended for the visit to Bologna next week. A bit nervy towards the end after Gimenez pulled one back, but got the job done eventually. 

Milan 

Ratings: Maignan 5.5; Walker 5 (Jimenez 6.5), Gabbia 5.5, Pavlovic 6, T.Hernandez 6.5; Fofana 5, Bondo 5.5 (Chukwueze 6), Pulisic 5 (Jovic 6.5), Reijnders 5, Joao Felix 5.5 (Leao 6); Abraham 5 (Gimenez 5.5). 

Best Milan player:  Theo Hernandez 6.5 – Not the finest selection of Milan players to choose from this week. Theo Hernandez, along with Strahinja Pavlovic, looked like the more motivated of the Rossoneri players on display, and eventually got a goal contribution with an assist for Luka Jovic, which proved to be a little too late. Credit too to Luka Jovic, who got the goal and nearly found the equaliser in stoppage time as well. 

Coach: Sergio Conceicao 5 – Not helped by the fact that he had to shuffle his team around last-minute after Ruben Loftus-Cheek fell ill. Still, there will be questions over his team selection and the decision to bench Rafael Leao – the 10th time that has happened this season. It took the Rossoneri until the final quarter of an hour to start looking threatening, the Portugal international playing a role in that. A first half to forget, better towards the end. It still feels like Milan need to concede before they get going, though, and that’s not a great trait.