AC Milan are back in action in the 2024 Soccer Champions Tour when they face off against the champions of Europe, Real Madrid, in Chicago at Soldier Field.
Milan began their second consecutive American tour on Saturday night with a 3-2 victory against Manchester City at the Yankee Stadium. Although it was only a friendly, there were a lot of positives from the game, including a 33-pass move leading to the winning goal.
Following the draw against Rapid Wien, Paulo Fonseca has had another week of working with his squad as he aims to prepare them for the upcoming season, and the win against City will help build some confidence.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring, but a four-minute brace from Lorenzo Colombo put Milan into the lead. James McAtee levelled for the Premier League champions, Marco Nasti scored the winner 12 minutes from time.
Now, Real Madrid are the next opponents on Wednesday night – or the early hours of Thursday morning if you are in Europe – and they will be another intriguing opponent to face.
Date and time
As mentioned, it will be a tough one for the Europeans to stay up for this game, which will be played at 19:30 local time, which is 02:30 CEST. This is the most difficult kick-off time however, with the Barcelona game one hour earlier.
The game will be played at Soldier Field which is one of the most iconic venues in the United States. Opened in 1924 and reconstructed in 2003, the stadium has served as the home of the Chicago Bears for over 50 years.
The stadium has a football capacity of 62,500, making it the smallest stadium in the NFL but also the oldest stadium established in the league. It also hosts Chicago Fire games in Major League Soccer, for which the capacity is slightly reduced.
Team news
There have been a lot of changes to the squad since that Manchester City game, starting with the omissions. Lorenzo Colombo and Daniel Maldini are back in Italy to sign for Empoli and Monza respectively, while Alessandro Florenzi and Marco Sportiello have both suffered quite serious injuries.
Rafael Leao joined his team-mates on Sunday, immediately after the friendly against City, and has already had his first training session under the guidance of Fonseca yesterday. Noah Okafor, Kevin Zeroli and Francesco Camarda arrive today, which probably rules them out of a start.
According to the latest from Calciomercato.com, there will not be many changes from the last game. Florenzi must be replaced with Tommaso Pobega likely to take his spot and there will be no Colombo either, so Marco Nasti should get the nod.
Meanwhile, there was some talk about Endrick getting his first minutes in a Real Madrid shirt but he does not seem likely to start at the moment. Brahim Diaz and Luka Modric stand out among Los Blancos’ expected side.
Predicted Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Torriani; Calabria, Tomori, Gabbia, Terracciano; Pobega, Bennacer; Chukwueze, Loftus-Cheek, Saelemaekers; Nasti.
Predicted Real Madrid XI (4-3-3): Courtois; Lucas Vazquez, Vallejo, Rudiger, Fran Garcia; Ceballos, Modric, Palacios; Brahim Diaz, Alvaro Rodriguez, Nico Paz.
How to watch
In Italy, the game will be broadcast by DAZN and SportItalia, while Premier Sports will show the game in the UK. ESPN+ has purchased the rights in the US, for those that don’t have tickets to the game, and you can find the full list of broadcasters here.
I will be there tomorrow. Can’t wait, forza Milan
WOW UP MADRID
They ll’ win thiz game, hala losblancos
Why in the world is Pobega starting? I can’t see him being kept on the team this season.
You do realize its a “Predicted XI” by SempreMilan, right ?
No need to worry about things that might not come to pass.
My bad Calciomercato but its not like they are clairvoyants either
There are only 6italians out of 8 we need. If we take him out of team, 5 out of 8 but we can register max 17 non-italians that means we will have 22man squad.with pobega its 23
If Fonseca can somehow make Pobega works for us, and he discover his Torino form, it’s a win win. He is homegrown so he is important for squad registration.
Just support the player for now.
I get he’s Italian and all but I can’t support this level of player – just like I didn’t support Matri, Bertolacci or Kevin Constant in the past. We have to be at a certain level as Milan, surely?
Ah yes, it comes full circle …the bashing of Pobega. This after 3 years prior where ppl rated him over Kessie LMAO 😂. Brings a certain quantum of joy ngl
I remember a lot of crazy sh*t on this site but not that.
Oh u haven’t been around these parts long enough. Bro when Kessie was about to leave ppl here were saying “we have Pobega” …this was when he was “doing well” at Torino. To which I and a few others couldn’t comprehend. I got bashed in for that. I actually spend the whole of that summer saying we’ll miss Kessie while the other set of ppl were sooooo pro-Pobega they thought he was better than Kessie. Later that season and thereafter it’s been quite interesting to see ppls opinion change so drastically on that matter
Ah you’re right – yes I was probably still on Rossoneri Blog back when this was going down.
Simple search for this site our good friend bb:
IKWYDLS30 August 2022, 14:54 at 2:54 pm
Where are all the Pobega is better than Kessie fans? Been quiet these days 😂😂😂 he got the better of Kessie in a couple duels in one game and ppl crowned him the next coming lol. Not saying Pobega is bad and hope he does well but he really needs to get in shape. Was never nowhere near Kessie
bb30 August 2022, 15:52 at 3:52 pm
Still here! Pobega CRUSHED Kessie in both matches last season. Pobega will get his chance to prove himself. The season is long and he only has a handful of matches in the Rossoneri-shirt.
Lol and this was the sentiment from fans about Pobega throughout btw
What about Musah??
I think Musah is one of the most important players Fonesca should develop.
He needs to play more and find his position because he has a lot of unfulfilled potential.