City Edged Out By AC Milan In New York

4 August 2024 Off By Harry

Milan come out as 4-3 winners at The Yankee Stadium to condemn City to their second pre-season loss.

City went into their second pre-season friendly off the back of losing their first to Celtic in North Carolina, looking to return to winning ways.

The first big chance fell the way of AC Milan. In the 8th minute, a wonderful release ball sent former Chelsea and Forest midfielder Loftus-Cheek on a darting run down the right flank. This allowed him to put an inviting ball across the penalty area for Saelemaekers, but Ederson read the pass well and blocked it, eventually managing to gather the ball after a chest-down from another Milan player to try and have a second go at scoring the opening goal of the friendly.

Milan then hand another chance around 10 minutes later. A wonderful bit of quick-passing down the left (combined with great awareness of each other’s positions) allowed them another sight at goal. But, Milan’s striker Colombo couldn’t quite direct it into the City net.

In the 19th minute, the first goal came. City won the ball back on the right-hand side of Milan’s defensive third after what Milan claimed was a foul, but the officials didn’t agree. Instead, Bobb went on a fantastic run past the Italian’s defence and squared the ball across the penalty box for Haaland. Haaland managed to direct the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of Torriani’s goal to go ahead in New York.

8 minutes later, Bobb went on another fantastic dribble through the Milan defence. He decided to square it to Haaland, who couldn’t quite find the net, putting it over the crossbar.

Approaching the half-hour mark, City struggled to clear their lines. This allowed Chukwueze to put an inviting cross into his teammate Colombo. Colombo headed it into the net despite the best efforts of Ederson to keep it out. The score now sat at 1 each.

Less than 5 minutes later, another big chance fell the way of the blues. An excellent advantage from the referee lead to an amazing chance for Bobb again. Some quick build-up play from the advantage set up the chance, but he couldn’t quite guide it home.

City were to pay the price for the miss just over a minute later. A great run from Calabria set up Chukwueze to carry on the attack. Another inviting cross from Chukwueze for Colombo to hit on the volley, which he duly put past Ederson to turn the scoreline in Milan’s favour.

Into the second half then, and Milan changed into their away kit to support the “City and Milan for Change” campaign. This campaign focuses on giving back to the New York community through many activities surrounding this fixture, which shows that football is for all.

In the 55th minute, a cross from substitute Micah Hamilton (after some great work down the left-flank) led to an easy header for McAtee to net a goal he deserved. The score was back level at 2-2.

Sadly though, much like the Celtic game, City’s efforts weren’t to result in any further goals. Instead Milan got the winner in the 78th minute. After a great release-ball down the right channel of the City half set Saelemaekers away. He was able to set-up substitute Marco Nasti on the edge of the box with a superb cutback ball, who struck the ball into the bottom-left corner past Ederson. City were to have no reply in terms of another leveller, with Milan eventually being confirmed as winners.

City will look to improve results tomorrow (the 3rd of August 2024), as they play Chelsea at the Ohio Stadium in Columbus at 22:30 BST.

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