AC Milan Lift Inaugural Silvio Berlusconi Trophy After 5-6 Win On Penalties

AC Milan faced AC Monza at the U-Power Stadium in the inaugural Silvio Berlusconi Trophy in memory of the former President of both clubs. Milan and Monza drew 1-1 after 90 minutes before going directly to penalties. The Rossoneri prevailed 7-6 in a near perfect shoot out as there seemed to be no end for a while. Milan lifted the trophy in front of over 16,000 fans at the stadium in Monza.

Milan started the game well with a dominant opening 30 minutes, the football was flowing with the good exchanges between the midfield and the attackers. Christian Pulisic forced a penalty in the 27th minute as he charged into the box and was brought down. Pulisic surprisingly stepped up to take the penalty over Olivier Giroud, he would miss the penalty after a poor shot before tapping in the rebound to get the opener.

Milan fell asleep after the goal and a turnover in possession allowed Monza to equalise through Colpani just three minutes later. Milan were consistently exposed at the back as the midfield provided no cover for the defence and it was fairly easy for Monza to move up the pitch with minimal resistance. The next 60 or so minutes were hard to watch as Milan were stuck in the middle of the pitch and were being hit hard on the counters.

Stefano Pioli is largely responsible for the poor second half and potential injuries to Theo Hernandez and Giroud as he was stubborn not to make changes early - in a friendly. Noah Okafor and Samuel Chukwueze revitalised the attack when they were brought on around the 80th minute but they should have had at least an extra 10-20 minutes.

Reijnders, Tomori, Loftus-Cheek, Okafor, Thiaw and Colombo all converted their penalties. Mike Maignan failed to save any of Monza’s kicks but the last shot slammed the crossbar.