Milan emerged with a 3-1 victory over Monza in the Trofeo Berlusconi, which also saw Alvaro Morata, Strahinja Pavlovic and Emerson Royal introduced to the San Siro crowd.
The pre-season friendly was organised to honour Silvio Berlusconi, who was the President of both clubs during his life.
Before kick-off, new signings Morata, Pavlovic and Emerson Royal saluted the fans, though the former Tottenham Hotspur full-back was not even on the bench.
Benvenuto nella tua nuova casa, la Scala del Calcio, @Emerson_Royal22 🇧🇷🔴⚫️
🎥 Valeria Lippera per https://t.co/jlTDBgF49e#EmersonRoyal #milanpress pic.twitter.com/IZJIBYL11B
— MilanPress.it (@MilanPress_it) August 13, 2024
Pierre Kalulu, who is on the verge of a transfer to Juventus, was also left in the stands.
The deadlock was broken in rather bizarre fashion, as Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s back-heel flick set up Alexis Saelemaekers on the edge of the area, he decided to go for an audacious ‘rabona’ finish and it paid off – thanks largely to the deflection off Pablo Mari that completely wrong-footed the goalkeeper.
Rafael Leao nodded wide and then stung the goalkeeper’s gloves, but Monza lost injury-prone midfielder Stefano Sensi to bruised ribs after just 21 minutes.
When Monza equalised, it was scored by a familiar face at San Siro, former Rossoneri youth product Daniel Maldini, the son of former director Paolo and grandson of Cesare. He was at the near post to meet the low cross from Samuele Vignato.
They were nearly in front moments later with a similar move, Pedro Pereira’s cross again from the right finding Mirko Maric sliding in and just turning wide.
Milan made numerous changes at half-time and restored their advantage with Luka Jovic ready to tap in from close range on the parried Noah Okafor effort.
Okafor seemed very lively and tested the goalkeeper again, but the third goal was a ferocious rocket of a touched-on free kick from Tijjani Reijnders that bent back Semuel Pizzignacco’s gloves.
Alex Jimenez went off with a muscular issue, replaced by Italy Under-19 talent Kevin Zeroli, as Liberali and Samuele Birindelli tested the goalkeepers.
Milan 3-1 Monza
Pablo Mari og 11 (Mi), Maldini 34 (Mo), Jovic 47 (Mi), Reijnders 56 (Mi)
Milan: Maignan (Torriani 46); Calabria (Jimenez 46) (Zeroli 63), Thiaw (Tomori 46), Gabbia (Pavlovic 46), Terracciano (Theo Hernandez 46); Musah (Bennacer 46), Adli (Reijnders 46); Saelemaekers (Chukwueze 46), Loftus-Cheek (Liberali 46) (Pobega 73), Leao (Okafor 46); Morata (Jovic 46)
Monza: Pizzignacco; Izzo (Bettella 60), Pablo Mari, Carboni (Caldirola 60); Pereira, Bondo (Gagliardini 60), Sensi (Pessina 22) (Valoti 85), Kyriakopoulos; Maldini, Vignato (Diaw 70); Maric (Petagna 60)
It’s only Monza LOL
@Omar
And Monza B at that too.