New Delhi: Juventus defeated AC Milan 4-3 on penalties after their pre-season friendly in Carson, California ended in a 2-2 draw on Thursday.
The two Serie A giants produced an interesting hour at Dignity Health Sports Park, home of Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy, before both teams ended the game with substitutions.
AC Milan’s top performer
Malick Thiaw and Olivier Giroud got their names on the scoresheet in the first half, but goals from Danilo and Daniele Rugani secured Milan. All four goals in the match came from free kicks.
Tijjani Reijnders grabbed attention when he has the ball at his feet as he keeps his head up and always drives fast. He could have made two passes to Olivier Giroud, but the passes went a bit far in front of the Frenchman.
Malick Thiaw showed with his height that he is a problem in scoring in the opponent’s box. He produced a superb header to set up Giroud’s goal, but Federico Chiesa caused him problems. Luka Romero also continues to impress. This time he came to the second half with the right attitude and the Argentine showed that he is already in control of the team’s activities and again came close to the goal.
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Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s flop show
In terms of tackles, Ruben Loftus-Cheek does not impressed with his performance, although he often pushed forward to support the attack. He may be struggling with a bit of a heavy workload in the early season, but he lost his man Federico Gatti before the 1-1 goal.
Juventus fight back
Juve struck back again with Federico Chiesa’s free-kick into the box, which Daniele Rugani took and easily deflected past Giroud on his way to goal.
Both teams made drastic changes after that, mostly bringing in reserves and young players, and the quality and intensity of the game quickly evaporated.
Fikayo Tomori didn’t make big mistakes like he did in the Real Madrid game, but he made a few too many mistakes and wasn’t very accurate with his distribution.
Charles De Ketelaere came off the bench and should have used these first friendlies of the summer to convince Stefano Pioli to keep him. He played as a midfielder whose job was to reach the ball and move it forward, but the commentators hardly mentioned his name.
Il rigore decisivo di Mati 🇦🇷#JuveMilan pic.twitter.com/0brECO92e4
— JuventusFC (@juventusfc) July 28, 2023
Next friendly of both teams
Both teams will finish their tour against the top Spanish teams. Milan face Barcelona in Las Vegas on Tuesday and Juve face Real Madrid in Orlando on Wednesday.
