Before we dive into this friendly vs Real Madrid, a few words on Milan’s 3-2 win over Manchester City this past Saturday. Clearly these games are meaningless AND it’s nice to see them play well against a team a lot of the world has been following for the past decade. There were a lot of eyes on this and it’s a good opportunity for Milan to show everyone they’re still relevant and more importantly, on the way back up.
As stated in the matchday post, the most important thing to take away from these are the little things, signs that the team is focused. Crispness isn’t one of them as that takes a little time to find, so you should instead be looking for the right movements into space when in possession and closing down space and overall compactness when on defense. Sure, you’ll see some individual moments of brilliance, like Chukwueze’s two assists and Colombo’s nice finishes or Saelemaekers nice cut back to find a trailing Nasti for the game-winner.
Mostly though, the main point for us fans is to have fun and enjoy the games. Enjoy seeing the young ones getting some minutes (Liberali, anyone???…kid seems to have a knack for maneuvering around in tight spaces) or for us in the US, especially those in the stadium, getting to see Pulisic and Musah come on even if just for a cameo.
As for the summer mercato, things are starting to heat up and there’s been some movement both in and out of Milanello, including Strahinja Pavlovic officially signing a little bit ago, but we’ll cover this in the coming days as many of those pending moves become final.
For now though, onto the game!
MATCHDAY INFO
LAST FIVE
Milan: WDLDL
Real Madrid: WDDWW
FORMATIONS
MILAN (4-3-2-1): Torriani; Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw, Terracciano; Loftus-Cheek, Bennacer; Chukwueze, Liberali, Saelemaekers; Nasti
REAL MADRID (4-3-3): Courtois; Vasquez, Vallejo, Rüdiger, Fran Garcia; Modric, Martin, Ceballos; Güler, Endrick, Diaz
TIME/LOCATION
TIME: 8:30pm EST/1:30am GMT
PLACE: Soldier Field, Chicago, IL, USA
WHERE TO WATCH:
ESPN+ here in the states. Check your local listings
*Let us know if this needs updating*
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
As alluded to in the intro, Milan has really started to make some moves and that will impact what we saw this past Saturday and what we will see tonight.
Colombo, who just had a brace vs Manchester City, has flown back to Milan along with Daniel Maldini as they are moving on to other teams (Maldini sold to Monza, Colombo on loan to Empoli with an option to buy). These two moves have meant that youngsters Kevin Zeroli (17yrs old) and Francesco Camarda (16yrs old) have been flown to the US to add some bodies to finish the US Tour. Both players, who made their 1st team debuts last season, are expected to spend the season with the Futuro and Camarda just won the U17 Euro 2024 with Italy. Not a bad summer for him.
Leão and Okafor have also joined and along with Pulisic and Musah now having a few more practices with the team since arriving late last week, the first team squad is slowly starting to fill out this preseason tour. Expect to see all of them play, with Pulisic and Musah getting a few more minutes than last game, and Leão and Okafor slowing increasing workload over the next couple of weeks.
Tactically, in the past 24-48 hours I’ve seen a few things on social media hinting that Fonseca might play Pulisic behind the striker, aka in the hole – aka as the #10. Leão has said something similar regarding playing with Pulisic and where he’d like to see him play. I don’t know that we’ll see it in this game but it’s something we talked about here last season (I specifically brought this up last summer), so be on the lookout for that as the preseason friendlies wind down. Lisi and I will have more to say about this particular topic in our season preview in a few weeks.
As for Real Madrid, they are coming off of a domestic and European double so of course they just signed Kylian Mbappe on a free. They are the best and best-run soccer team in the world (by a mile…trophies, robust youth system, turning a profit) but you didn’t need me to tell you that. They are what we hope Milan are striving to be but the verdict is still out on that and might be for the next 5-10yrs.
Like the Manchester City game, this will also have a lot of eyes on it because of Real so enjoy seeing many of their stars on the pitch as well as our own. I know I’ll be on the lookout for my favorite little playmaker dancing and weaving through bodies and creating havoc…miss ya, Brahim!
Forza Milan
gillis