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The game between AC Milan and Napoli on Sunday night will see two of the best midfielders of the current generation do battle: Luka Modric and Kevin De Bruyne.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport write, they have 74 combined years of experience: Modric 40 and De Bruyne 34. While their physical condition holds up, being of a certain age helps, bringing with it experience and better management of emotions and situations.
A common misconception is that Modric and De Bruyne have chosen Serie A as their last resort. This may be true for Modric, because at 40 the horizons are limited. It’s questionable whether De Bruyne, at 34, is considering retirement.
If the Belgian lasted as long as Modric, he’d be done in six seasons. Sunday’s Milan-Napoli match will add a new chapter to the saga of two of the world’s best midfielders.
The differences
Modric and De Bruyne are masters of midfield, each in their own way. Their physique is a key difference: Modric is 5ft8 and of normal build, De Bruyne is almost 6ft and bigger.
Their roles also don’t match, especially today. In Milan’s 3-5-2, Modric plays as a pure regista, dictating the tempo and style with Fofana and Rabiot flanking him. In Conte’s Napoli 4-1-4-1, De Bruyne moves as a left midfielder behind the center forward, swapping positions with McTominay on the left flank.
The numbers confirm De Bruyne’s greater attacking prowess: 191 career goals, including those for Belgium; Modric’s 133, including those against Croatia. Despite being six years younger, De Bruyne has scored more goals, but that’s normal.
Modric, compared to the Belgian, plays further away from the opponent’s goal. He’s not as drawn to it as De Bruyne. And for the same reason, the assist count is higher: De Bruyne leads 262 to 141. The former Dinamo man stitches the play further back, he’s a weaver all over the pitch, from one area to another, his passes often setting up the assist provider.
And Modric is better than De Bruyne at controlling and shielding the ball. It’s incredibly difficult to take the ball away from him, the same thing happened with Pirlo and Iniesta, champions who resemble Modric.
The similiarities
Vision and visions. Both sense the game, predict it, and anticipate it. They possess refined and sensitive technique, but they don’t rely on instinct; they use intelligence. They always make the right play, or almost always; perfection doesn’t exist.
Both are masters of the vertical pass, the assist to a team-mate in space. Sometimes team-mates are a problem: not everyone immediately grasps genius, not everyone is tuned into their frequencies.
Both know in advance what will happen next, but their cutting-edge thinking can make them incomprehensible; it takes habit. Milan and Napoli haven’t yet enjoyed the best Modric and the best De Bruyne because the teams haven’t fully understood them yet.
At Milan, Leao – who perhaps would have been the first to receive Modric’s balls – was injured. At Napoli, Lukaku – whose connection with De Bruyne was evident in many of their matches together in Belgium – is injured.
They have both won too. A lot. Modric has won more, if we consider the Champions League as the most important metric. Modric has lifted six, all with Real Madrid, compared to De Bruyne’s single win with Manchester City.
Modric was a Ballon d’Or finalist in a World Cup. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, they could have met in the final, had Belgium not lost to France in the semi-finals, who defeated Modric’s Croatia in the final.
Neither managed to win anything with their national teams, although Modric elevated Croatia more than De Bruyne did with Belgium. Second-place finishes in 2018 and third in 2022 in Qatar were exceptional results, for a small country like Croatia, with less than four million inhabitants.
De Bruyne is superior in domestic leagues. The six Premier League titles he won with City are worth more than Modric’s four Liga titles with Real Madrid. Modric, with a Serie A title, would close the gap. On Sunday their paths will cross, and a big step could be taken towards that.
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