AC Milan concluded their preseason tour of the United States with another victory, this time against Barcelona in Baltimore and this time via a penalty shootout.
Milan were excellent in the opening 25 minutes and found themselves two goals up when Christian Pulisic squared for Luka Jovic and then Pulisic himself lifted a shot over Ter Stegen from a narrow angle to double the lead.
However, keeping Robert Lewandowski quiet proved to be a task that the Rossoneri would fail to complete, as he responded quickly to halve the deficit and got another goal in the second half to draw Barca level.
Having finished 2-2 after 90 minutes the game went to penalties, and Lorenzo Torriani was the hero making two saves in a 4-3 shootout win, after having made a number of decisive interventions during the game as well. Below are three things we learned from the final USA friendly.
The ‘champagne attack’
The positive aspects of Milan’s performances were concentrated in the first half, maybe the first half-hour, and they are mostly centred around how well the front four players seemed to click.
There were times last season when fans called for a trident of Chukwueze-Pulisic-Leao behind the striker, and they got to see it in action against Barca, with Jovic leading the line.
Looking at the two goals, the potential was absolutely there to see. For the first a brilliant run by Yunus Musah saw Chukwueze feed Pulisic who squared to Jovic for a tap-in, then for the second it was Leao who found the American with a lovely weighted pass.
Beyond the goals themselves, the movements of the other forwards seemed to free Leao for his typical adventurous runs to the byline. Pulisic seemed to know when to drift to the right and left to interplay, and the whole unit felt very dynamic.
There are obvious caveats such as the presence of Alvaro Morata as a more link-up based forward and also what it means for the balance of the side, but for those 25 minutes it was nice to see Chu-Pu-Le put on a bit of a show.
A sense of reality
Unfortunately, we can’t act as though everything was perfect as – preseason or not – a two-goal lead was coughed up and the second half performance was far from good to watch.
The whole approach seemed a bit confused. Jovic was withdrawn which meant we saw Pulisic as a striker for a while, with Fonseca admitting that Loftus-Cheek was meant to be alongside him as two attacking midfielders, then Noah Okafor played in that role.
The management of the second half was far from ideal as the limitations of Milan’s ‘play out from the back no matter what’ approach were highlighted. Barça’s young players looked fresh, they pressed and the Diavolo were not composed.
Barcelona took possession of the ball and created several chances as the spaces between the lines opened up, while Milan created nothing. The difficulties of certain individuals was highlighted too, but we won’t dig them out because fatigue and a lack of like-for-like substitutes didn’t help the shape.
It is perhaps the first sign that against high-level teams that perhaps do not press intensely but they do so smartly and cut off the options, Milan’s midfield and defence seem to panic. Hopefully, with more training work and game practice, it becomes positive habits rather than negative.
What we already knew
Milan management: if you are reading this, there are 10 days until the season starts and this squad is not complete. In fact, the gaps that were obvious at the start of the transfer window remain.
The midfield is unbalanced, as we knew months ago let alone heading towards the first game of the season. Youssouf Fofana/another defensive presence have not arrived, it is the most glaring thing to address, and yet haggling over a target that terms were agreed with months ago continues.
At the moment the jury is out on whether Loftus-Cheek and Musah can realistically play in the double pivot because friendlies do not give us enough signs, but Bennacer certainly looks far more natural based on the sample size we have.
Then there is the right-back role, where the injury to Alessandro Florenzi was obviously unfortunate and unforeseen, but again there have been painfully slow negotiations for Emerson Royal – who is hardly a groundbreaking signing – over €1-2m differences.
The result: Saelemaekers starting in that position, getting a humbling from Raphinha and perhaps damaging the confidence that he had built up playing in literally the opposite position on the field (left wing).
Zlatan Ibrahimovic told us that Alex Jimenez will be Theo Hernandez’s deputy, yet Filippo Terracciano is the one who was used there last night and he really struggled throughout, looking very limited and trying some bizarre things such as backheels on the halfway line.
Then there is the back-up striker issue. Jovic and Okafor were both impact subs last season and play better off someone, but the Swiss looks a better fit for the role than the Serb.
Camarda didn’t get any minutes which is understandable given his summer workload, yet it is another issue where there is all talk – or speculation at least – and no concrete action. Time is running out.