Rapid Wien 1-1 AC Milan: Florenzi goal not enough as hosts level late on

AC Milan began their preseason friendly campaign with a 1-1 draw against Rapid Wien at the Allianz Stadion on Saturday evening.

Paulo Fonseca named a young starting line-up given the amount of absences he has to contend with. The likes of Filippo Terracciano, Mattia Liberali, Chaka Traore and Lorenzo Colombo all featured.

The first chance of the game came in the seventh minute when the hosts should have taken the lead. Jansson put in a cut-back that the captain Seidl took in stride, yet the post denied his low shot.

A minute later Seidl had another chance, this time angling a left-footed shot from inside the area just a couple of inches wide of the far post with Marco Sportiello at full stretch.

Milan had just one shot on target in what was a very slow-paced and timid first half, and that was a rocket from Tommaso Pobega that went comfortably wide. However, they did have the ball in the net when Liberali buried one into the bottom corner, though the flag had gone up.

The team for the second half was even more experimental as Lorenzo Torriani took the gloves while Andrea Bakounde, Alex Jimenez, Hugo Cuenca and Daniel Maldini got a run-out.

The first goal of the game came 64 minutes in and it was Alessandro Florenzi who got it. Ismael Bennacer fed Maldini down the left who clipped in a cross that Florenzi put into the roof of the net first time.

In truth the hosts were on top for large stretches of the match and that is probably par for the course. They had their strongest side out and today was their final friendly before facing Wisla Krakow in a Europa League qualifier on Thursday.

However, Milan broke out of the press well in the second half and Alexis Saelemaekers was particularly lively. A spot kick should have been awarded when a low cross into the box ricocheted to safety, because the Belgian winger was clearly brought down.

The final bit of action would be the equaliser for Rapid, and it was probably no more than they deserved. A whipped cross from the right was allowed to make its way over to the far side of the box where the substitute Demir was on hand to control with his knee and fire a deflected effort past Kalulu, Tomori and in.