AC Milan needed a penalty shoot-out to beat Monza in a friendly on Tuesday night at the U-Power Stadium.
In what was a dull affair overall, Christian Pulisic scored Milan’s only goal of the game but it was very quickly ruled out by Andrea Colpani in the first half.
There was a sombre feel to the U-Power Stadium ahead of kick off as there was a rendition of Nessun Dorma by three singers on the pitch which was followed by a speech from Adriano Galliani about his friend and colleague, Silvio Berlusconi.
The game was the first Trofeo Berlusconi, being organised after his passing earlier in the year. Berlusconi owned both Milan and Monza during his life, with Galliani by his side at both.
The action began in a fairly tepid manner, as was to be expected given the occasion. There was some busy work from new players Tijjani Reijnders and Christian Pulisic.
The early sights on goal for Milan came from an Olivier Giroud overhead kick that failed to get near the goal, and a good shot from distance by Rafael Leao that produced a low save out of Michele Di Gregorio.
Despite that, it was Mike Maignan who was soon called into an impressive double save as a shot from close range came in from Andrea Colpani, and there was a follow-up from range to save.
Monza were forced into an early change as Davide Bettella suffered an injury inside 20 minutes. That led to former Inter defender Danilo D’Ambrosio coming on for his first Monza appearance.
Milan continued to apply the pressure and it paid after half an hour when the busy Pulisic was brought down inside the box after a smart one-two with Olivier Giroud. The American stepped up to take the penalty but saw his shot saved. He was able to sweep in the rebound though.
That made it seem as though the floodgates were about to open, but after a flurry of activity in the Monza box, it was actually Raffaelle Palladino’s side that scored. Some very poor defending from Milan allowed Colpani the space in the box to score past Maignan.
Milan were not particularly perturbed by being pegged back and continued to apply pressure on the Monza goal for the rest of the first half. Both Leao and Hernandez came close to scoring, with the former working Di Gregorio.
Much of the positive play in the second half for Milan was coming down the left flank, where Hernandez and Leao clearly had the pace advantage on the Monza defence.
The match hit a lull around the hour mark with neither side managing to produce too much, and Stefano Pioli opting not to make any changes too swiftly.
A decent opening finally came in the 66th minute as Gianluca Caprari almost put Monza ahead with a low shot from the edge of the box, but Maignan got across well and palmed it away.
It took until the 79th minute for Pioli to make any changes to his Milan side, given the team is playing another friendly against Trento tomorrow. That will almost certainly feature an entirely different starting eleven.
The changes first saw Pulisic and Hernandez come on for Samuel Chukwueze and Davide Bartesaghi. Leao and Giroud then came off a minute later for Noah Okafor and Lorenzo Colombo.
Giroud appeared to have some physical discomfort as he came off and was receiving some attention on the bench.
The second half was summed up late on when Reijnders took a free-kick from close range and blazed it way over the bar at a seemingly impossible angle.
The 90 minutes ended 1-1, with very little action of note in the second half. That meant the game went straight to penalties.
Reijnders dispatched the first penalty for Milan but Andrea Petagna soon equalised. Okafor then netted for Milan, with Caprari making it 2-2.
Tomori scored his penalty, and was followed by Machin who also scored despite Maignan going to right way. Loftus-Cheek was next and he also scored, putting Milan 4-3 up. Franco Carboni made it 4-4.
Colombo dispatched his penalty, so the pressure was on Pessina to score and he did, making it 5-5. Going into sudden-death, Thiaw made it 6-5. Birindelli then hit the bar to ensure that Milan won 6-5.
Giroud possibly having an issue is concerning and may mean we may have to sign a striker. Taremi possibly. It appears we need someone to actually capitalize on chances. Not a bad amount of chances created.
His movement in and out the box is terrible
Whose? Girouds or Taremis?
I don’t know. I’m throwing out ideas.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! W play like this against Monza ??????? LOL . Pioli got to go. Thank you Mr Pioli your time is up , take Krunic with you too.
Honestly! Now I feel so too.
1-1 not surprised but score line seems fitting, didn’t expect and will not expect alot from this team…the real test comes when playing for points
I’ll take what I can from the game. 4 3 3 shown signs of promise. The amount of times the midfield was caught out and whether it’s krunic’s fault or not I don’t know but he left the defence many times and so much to run at through the middle. Maybe he’s not cut out to be the defensive mid and we need a true dm there or piolis instructions aren’t clear. In attack the mid looked decent, while defending looked horrid.
And once again I don’t know if it’s cause it’s preseason, new players need to gel or its pioli but pulisic doesn’t look good on the right. We still play the typical wing play and pass it back but never drive to net.
I still think with the players we have were more suited to a 4 2 3 1. Krunic isn’t meant to be there and pulisic would be better as an attacking mid with chukwueze on the right. I have a fear by game 5 of serie a we will be ditching the 4 3 3.
Didn’t show signs*
We definitely need a proper DM and for now should just play Musah there. Krunic is not a proper DM. He just needs to leave at this point.
Giroud closer and closer to retirement, really out of tempo, it’s like everything is so fast around him. Krunic we cannot rely on him. Howver I gotta say that Reijnders guy is absolute class , Chuko showed some great signs but with Pioli ohhh genius coach we gonna end up playing the same way as last year
All the while some persons mentioned here that Pioli might leave the club, I saw them as sad fans but after today, I’m becoming indifferent. If we didn’t have good subs, that would be understandable, but Pioli just decided to keep them until 12 mins remaining, so that they will come in and perform some magic. Honestly, I don’t understand which part of hell that tactics is from. Why not give Noah, Samuel, Luka etc, at least 20 – 30 mins play? Jez!! And why must Krunic play full time? This is not Serie A but it’s still a cup match, no matter how negligible you see it. It deserves our full strength. I tire for this Pioli of a man o. So angry…
Cuz those afromentioned will start next match
only The best coach in the whole wide world will yet have a Giroud in his line up fighting with guys in their early 20s! I wonder what the coach is smoking! Pls does anyone knows if he does smoke or take substance? Cuz I don’t understand why this man is in Milan, or perhaps been a puppet for cardinale will only dance to his employer tune…..well I’m sure by the time the fans turn on him, he will resign himself.
The Reindeer and Sammie Chuk (in only 10 min) looked good. Solid display from Butt-Cheek. Giroud looks 37.
Pioli has zero offensive tactics.
Spider Rico Krunic is ass, dude played the entire game too, straight up bum
433 will get Pioli sacked soon. Play your 4231 and save your job Pioli. Maldini is not here to buy you time and this is another year Zero cos we have an almost entirely new squad. Play your usual system. As they integrate fully, you can start thinking of switching formation
they are still in a 4231….RLC is playing a 10/second striker. Reijnders as the connector. Whether RLC was playing too high or Krunic too deep is up to the coach, they need more time to get midfield roles sorted. The average distance from RLC to Krunic was far too long the entire game giving up a lot of open space. They either need to be more compact playing a higher line (Giroud may be part of the issue there) or build some better communication between that midfield triangle.
It’s pretty obvious that none of the people who are bashing Giroud
a) are not over 30 and b) don’t play any sports.
As you get older your body reacts to breaks more aggressively – meaning getting back in to peak fit takes longer and longer. Sure, Giroud & Kjaer look like their careers are over but you’re ignoring one major thing here: their season started 2-3 weeks ago and their bodies take 2-3 weeks longer to recover from the break compared to the 20-years-olds.
Giroud will be back to himself in a couple of weeks and so will Kjaer. Pioli knows it. He’s been around long enough to know what age does to people. Clearly you guys complaining how those two are finished have not. 🙂