After their draw with Celtic, AC Milan will face Inter tomorrow night in their next pre-season game of the 2026 summer tour.
Due to the cancellation of the session against Perth, Milan fans have had to wait to see the team back in action after their draw against Celtic. However, this could well be a good thing, with Ruben Amorim getting a chance to further nail down some of his core philosophies and who better to face than Inter?
Game date: Wednesday, August 5
Kick-off time: 13:00 (CEST)
Venue: Optus Stadium
Team news
With pre-season progressing, we should have a more familiar Rossoneri side in place with several players returning. Indeed, Goncalo Ramos and Rafael Leao made their way to Perth on July 29, whilst Koni De Winter, Ardon Jashari, Alexis Saelemaekers and Luka Modric have also joined the squad.
During his pre-game press conference, Ruben Amorim discussed the possibility of seeing some of the new faces and Rafael Leao and Luka Modric both seem likely to feature in some capacity, it seems.
After the 2-2 draw with Celtic on July 25, the Portuguese has had around a week to properly work with his squad – taking travel into account and whatnot – so there should’ve been some progress in this time with him not too pleased about the team’s performance in Scotland.
So, facing an Inter side, who are certainly further ahead with their project and understanding of their manager’s tactics, will be a big test for the Rossoneri. Especially with it being Amorim’s first chance to experience a ‘Serie A’ opposition.
Predicted Milan XI (3-4-2-1): Torriani; Tomori, Gila, Pavlovic; Athekame, Ricci, Fofana, Bartesaghi; Cisse, Chukwueze; Camarda.
Unavailable: Estupinan, P. Terracciano, Gimenez, Pulisic, Maignan, Rabiot.
The opponents
After winning the Scudetto last season, Inter have not been overly active in the mercato. John Stones and Ivan Provedel arrived as free agents, whilst Aleksandar Stankovic returned to the club after spending last season with Club Brugge.
It is not a completely unchanged Inter team, though. Indeed, the Nerazzurri will start the campaign without several members of their experienced core; Yann Sommer, Franco Acerbi, Matteo Darmian, Stefan de Vrij and Denzel Dumfries have all departed.
Like the Rossoneri, they are still welcoming players back from the World Cup, so they are not expected to name a massively strong team in Perth on Wednesday. However, there will still be a few players of note, of course.
After all, the Nerazzurri will go into this season to be the first team to retain the Scudetto since Juventus did the back-to-back in the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons.
Yet, Christian Chivu has not sounded overly bothered about the game. Indeed, when asked about his unfavourable record against the Diavolo, he simply stated that the game was a friendly and nothing more…
Predicted Inter XI (3-5-2): Provedel; Pavard, Bisseck, Bastoni; Diouf, Barella, Zielinski, Mkhitaryan, Dimarco; Iddrissou, Esposito.
Head to head
Does anything really need to be said about the head-to-head history of these teams? After all, this is not a one-off game against Celtic, for example.
We’re joking, of course it does!
These sides know each other more than any other, facing one another 230 times since the 1926/27 season. However, this will be the first proper friendly between the two sides, classifying the Trofeo TIM and the ICC as pre-season tournaments.
Inter have been victorious on 85 occasions, compared to Milan’s 76 wins, but an unbeaten run stretching back to the end of the 2023/24 season gives the Rossoneri side of the city the bragging rights currently. Of course, that won’t change regardless of what happens tomorrow; as Chivu said, it’s a friendly.
How to watch
Rossoneri fans in Italy will be able to watch the match on Sky and DAZN. As for international viewers, it depends on where you are located.
In many territories, including the UK, OneFootball has picked up the game. You can buy PPV access to the game for £3.99 on OneFootball TV.
In the US, the game will be shown on FuboTV, FOX Deportes, and FOX One. Check out LiveSoccerTV for a full broadcast list.
Re TV coverage.
If you can VPN to Australia. It will be free on a local network (channel 7) streaming service called 7plus or 7+.