Preseason Match Recap: AC Milan beat Novara 2-0

AC Milan played their first preseason match today at Milanello against Serie C’s Novara. Milan ran out to a 2-0 win over their opponents and plenty of Milan players got involved. The results don’t matter very much in preseason, but it was still nice to see the boys in black and red get out onto the pitch.

The match was streamed live on Milan’s Twitter feed for the first time ever, and while it was still better than nothing, the Periscope stream often had issues with the amount of traffic and the sideline view often made it hard to see the action. But hey, it’s Milan football, so whatever, right?

Suso opened his account, and the club’s first goal of the preseason, in the 22nd minute from a really nice free-kick from the left hand side.

Novara showed some attacking intent 32nd minute, with a pair of corner kicks earned from a shot that was blocked on the way to Donnarumma’s goal. Milan did extremely well to contain the pressure, and blocked any goal bound efforts.

Milan doubled their lead in the 42nd minute after Franck Kessie’s blistering shot was spilled by the Novara keeper. The ball wasn’t cleared and Davide Calabria beat his man to the loose ball in the box and slotted the ball home, making no mistake.

Milan looked a little sloppier at the beginning of the second half, but that’s to be expected with this being the first preseason match. Gennaro Gattuso kept the rotation up with the hot weather and to see as many players as possible in the friendly.

The substitutions were plenty, and since it was a friendly, Gattuso took advantage by swapping players a few players in and out of the lineup. It helped make the second half seem a little less polished, but Milan were almost never certainly threatened to any more than one or two shots on net.

Novara almost scored in the 82nd minute, but the effort on goal wasn’t successful. The players for Milan started to look a tad tired, but other players, such as Hakan Çalhanoğlu, looked to bring up the play for Milan.

A pair of Primavera players came on in the 86th minute as Milan looked to just run out the rest of the match, and there was no stoppage time as the match came to an end with a 2-0 victory and a good showing from Milan.