Team news: Milan were without the injured Theo Hernandez and Mattia Caldara as well as without Diego Laxalt, Lucas Paquetá and Franck Kessié who were still on vacation and would join the squad later; André Silva and Patrick Cutrone were also out as they’d returned to Milano ahead of possible exits. Kickoff time was 21:00 CEST at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
Goal: Biglia (70′ own goal).
S.L. Benfica (4-4-2) – Bruno Lage
Odisseas Vlachodimos; Nuno Tavares, Rúben Dias, Ferro (73′ Jardel), Álex Grimaldo (73′ Tyronne Ebuehi); Pizzi (70′ Chiquinho), Ljubomir Fejsa (73′ Florentino Luís), Gabriel Appelt Pires (73′ Andreas Samaris), Rafa Silva; Adel Taarabt (86′ João Filipe), Haris Seferović (87′ Andrija Živković).
Unused: Svilar, Zlobin, Almeida, Conti, Ferreira, Chiquinho, Dantas, Cervi
AC Milan (4-3-1-2) – Marco Giampaolo
Gianluigi Donnarumma (46′ Pepe Reina); Davide Calabria (46′ Andrea Conti), Mateo Musacchio (64′ Matteo Gabbia), Alessio Romagnoli, Ricardo Rodríguez (64′ Ivan Strinić); Fabio Borini (87′ Marco Brescianini), Lucas Biglia, Hakan Çalhanoğlu (64′ Rade Krunić); Suso; Samu Castillejo, Krzysztof Piątek (87′ Daniel Maldini).
Unused: A. Donnarumma, Bonaventura, Mionić, Capanni, Capone.
Referee: Sorin Stoica (USA).
Very important offtopic question:
Why is Bennacer deal still not official???
The same was for Krunic and for Theo. Birocratic things
Anyone else thinks that Krunic, Duarte and Leao are second class players?
Bro, the season hasn’t even started yet. Don’t you think it’s too early to be judging players? Why don’t you wait until Jan? Jeez!
I watched alot of youtube clips and read some critics …
Even Correa is overrated
Correa + Leao = 90M
Juve took Ronaldo for 105M, ffs
Especially Krunic
Taarrabt playing against his old club, I have good memories of that goal against was it juve? Looks like we playing a 4411,hakan left wing, suso cm, borini ss,doesn’t look good but hope it works out!
Maaaan… Why borini over krunic tho.
I wish milan would pay any other club just take borini out
Fitness. Krunic hasn’t been training as long as the rest of the team. That’s the reason why he’s on the bench.
I didn’t know about that.
I hope he’ll get some playing time today
Krunic isn’t fit
Exactly you spoke my words. Milan should pay to other clubs to have him.
Borini – Biglia – Hakan midfield.
FantasyCL wining midfield right there if they are not offloaded asap.
If you take a shot everytime borini fall you’d be drunk at 15 minutes of the game
You would end up with liver failure eventually. Don’t play the Borini game at home, kids!
Horrible front line, apart from KP.
Anyhow ~ Forza Milan!
Guys, a lot to be excited about by the looks of it. The shape of the team and style of play are all new, and haven’t seen anything similar from Milan in six/seven years. The important thing is that all players are having their roles, heck Borini looks like a serious midfielder so far and imagine how will that look like with Kessie, Paqueta, Hernandez, Bennacer, Jack and possibly Correa and Leao. A lot of chances and shots, realy fun to watch. Goalkeeper kept them in the game in the first half. Samu and Calabria(not worried for him) the weakest,… Read more »
Well, this match means nothing with a haphazard milan midfield. Still we did quite okay in the first 45 min, with a couple of nice chances. We have to remember that Benefica isn’t really pressing in our half, but our passing game – all things considered- is not bad.
Cuddos to saint Donna for two really nice saves at the end of the half.
Benfica isn’t pressing because they can’t. Milan is clogging their passing lanes and our defensive line is high so we are forcing them to make rush passes and turnover the ball.
We are wining the battle in midfield. Keep in mind that Benfica is ahead of us in regards to their fitness level.
Giampaolo’s tactics and gameplan is why we are dominating Benfica in midfield and why we are creating more chances. Plain and simple. I know you may not want to acknowledge it so I’ll say it for you:-)
I will say this Nick – our backline’s passing game was quite good when we had our starting back 4 – not sure this has that much to do with Giampaolo. But the diamond midfield helps no doubt.
honestly for the first time in a while I saw milan play real attacking football…we could have scored atleast 4goals in the first half but castilejo and piatek wasted chances
Selling Donna for 50mil with today’s prices would be a crime. Good thing that story’s gone.
Good 1st half. Great movement and passing from defense to midfield.
Nice thru passes by Suso. I’m really thinking he can play as a trequartista. I can see Giampaolo’s style clearly.
Giampaolo’s gameplan and tactics is very clear unlike his predecessors. Sigh:-(
Calabria is impressive man. He’s improving and will soon be Italy’s #1 RB.
Suso didn”t look good at second half
Lack of fitness my friend but I liked how Suso looked in the first half. He timed his passes to perfection and that’s a good sign. He created two clear goal scoring chances but both of our strikers were misfiring today.
No big deal though. I’m just delighted to see our team work the ball thru the middle to create chances.
He also drifted out wide at times but that might have been the plan of the coach to create space as Castellijo did the same throughout the game.
Just belief with all the signing we will qualify for champions league
I know it’s too early and I could be exaggerating but..
1. I love how we’re playing so high up the pitch[defense] after so many years.
2. Good pressuring their midfield and defense.
3. Our away Jersey is just beautiful you guys!
I don’t care who’s coming in and who’s gonna leave but I think we’re gonna have a good season of beautiful football. I will fully support and trust the management and the coach until otherwise. Forza Milan
Yes sir. Totally agree. Love how our defensively line is high and our midfielders are pressing the ball and clogging up Benfica’s passing lane. Really like what I see so far. Let’s hope we have a good 2nd half.
Biglia weak in defense
no bro…he played well and organized the defence very well..he could have scored a freekick but was unlucky and it only hit the post
Samu should have done better. He is not killer instinct enough as a striker
yeah I totally agree…he could have scored hattrick and assisted piatek but he wasn’t so bad
Wow how can you guys be so disrespectful towards Lord Borini. How dare you talk shit about our best player? Have class when you talk about the Lord.
Lol
Is there anything wrong with the field?
The ball movement seems off
This is at Gilette stadium right? Field is “state of the art” articifial turf…also known as a terrible field. Turf pitches have no place in footy. It’s a big contributor to ascencio’s injury
it looked like they were playing under heavy rain in a mud field
Fluke goal conceded, lots of chances missed, been better and lost. Now that’s what we’re more familiar with. Joking aside, good performance overall, wish we finished with a draw at least.
If Giampaolo makes Suso stop crossing those low, whipped balls from the right that 100% of the time hit the first defender or Cutrone, we will have a proper trequartista. Also Piatek scared me a little today, not used to him missing chances. I wish they return tomorrow and the league starts next weekend, but… We are going to wait a bit more.
I am little worried about Piatek too. He had two chances. He should have been better
It’s just preseason guys. Relax. The most important thing is that our players are fit for the start of the season. Hernandez will most likely miss our first game or two.
He probably just didn’t want to hurt his knees celebrating on that dry grass xD
Some of these milan players really need to be sold. Glad we are targeting players for the right formation. I’m really impressed with the manager and tactics. Our first team will do so much better bona, cala, bennecar, krunic. With the new signing of leao we would be awesome
What’s the point of playing this preseason Cup if we just turn up to lose. I’m not saying milan played bad but we are just losing every game
We shouldn’t be explaining you the point of preseason games, considering you are a football fan?
2nd match under new coach, new tactics, formation, player’s positions, lack of 1st teamers etc.
Besides, Liverpool lost 4 consecutive friendly matches in this month and on high goal difference also.
Be rational.
In my opinion that’s was a good match it’s just preseason second we dominated Benfica with second team imagine when puqweta Ben Nasir Kessié back I believe in Giampaolo he’s is a real deal and you will see
Milan montella trash bayern 4-0 in pre-season and get fired few months later
lol…so true
Winning is not the point in preseason games. It’s about practicing the coaches tactics and gameplan in order to be prepared for the start of the season. Giampaolo also needs to determine tactically if he needs to sell or buy any other players before the season starts. He will use preseason to fine tune the team and drill down his style of play. So I don’t care if we lose every preseason game. what matters most is that the players understand their role and how the coach wants them to play according to his tactics and gameplan. As long as… Read more »
i’m really impressed with the way milan has been playing so far despite not even playing with the first team…I believe Giampaolo can really make milan a force to be reckoned with this new season cuz for the first time in a while I am really loving the kind of milan I am seeing at the moment
Couldn’t watch the game, from what I read this performance was so Mich better than the previous one. Glad to hear that. Feel bad for Biglia but that free kick.
I seen the first half and the way we pressed to regain the ball and how we passed when we had was so refreshing to see. We completely dominated the first half(don’t know how second went). Suso had 15 great minutes of defense cutting passes and shots. Then all of a sudden he drifted wide ay times and became anonymous. If he stays in the trequartista role he can be great. You look on paper at the starting midfield and you’d think they would get dominated but they pressed beautifully and made great touches and passes so can’t wait to… Read more »
We may have played defensively these past few years, but it’s not really a problem at the back we have, more so putting the ball in the net and some quality in midfield. We’ve got two forwards (whatever you may think of them) sitting in Italy, and a bang average Spanish winger playing up top. We might have our Copa players to return, but it’s quite clear the positions we are desperate for quality.
It has been a while since I saw Milan play like this. Just need to improve on the spaces in the defense