Napoli

Why Milan’s Serie A title bid belongs to ‘big brother’ Olivier Giroud | Nicky Bandini

07-Mar-2022 12:56:17 | The Guardian

What more could you ask of your sporting sibling than the performance Giroud turned in against Napoli on Sunday?

As players swapped shirts and fans began to make their way to the exits at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Olivier Giroud ran a hand over his beard and listened to an interviewer from Dazn complimenting his Italian. His eyebrows raised at the question that followed: “You’re a bit like Zlatan [Ibrahimovic]: you give instructions, you encourage, you motivate your teammates. So now that he’s back, who plays?”

It was an unexpected line of enquiry on a night when Giroud had, once again, shifted the course of Serie A’s title race, scoring the goal that delivered Milan victory over Napoli just as his two strikes had sunk Inter a month before. He blew out his cheeks and shrugged before reflecting: “I don’t want to think about who is going to play. My job is also to be a big brother to the young players.”