Urby Emanuelson’s well-taken strike gave Milan a 1-0 friendly victory away to Schalke 04 this evening.
Urby Emanuelson’s well-taken strike gave Milan a 1-0 friendly victory away to Schalke 04 this evening.
The Rossoneri continued pre-season warm-ups with their friendly against Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen, though the internationals were still absent after Euro 2012. Having lost both the mini-games to Inter and Juventus” data-scaytid=”8″>Juventus in the Trofeo TIM and yet to find replacements for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva, fans have been demanding to be reimbursed on their season tickets.
Kevin-Prince Boateng just failed to get on the end of a Stephan El Shaarawy cross from six yards, while moments later the Little Pharaoh went clear through the middle on an Urby Emanuelson pass and forced Hildebrand into a very difficult save one-on-one.
Emanuelson’s free kick skimmed the upright, but Schalke slowly increased the pressure and were very unlucky not to score on 24 minutes. Teemu Pukki had his back to goal and held up the ball for Lewis Holtby to fire on to the inside of the post with Marco Amelia stranded.
The hosts were pouring forward as the half wore on and Pukki’s shot was deflected out for a corner, though Robinho threatened with a shot on to the side-netting from 12 yards.
There were numerous substitutions at half-time, including ex-Milan flop Klaas Jan Huntelaar. Another Holtby attempt was charged down by the makeshift defence, but Luca Antonini was harshly booked after an accidental clash of heads with Atsuto Uchida and risked a second for a late tackle.
It was Milan who broke the deadlock against the run of play with a classic counter-attack. Emanuelson started and finished the move by combining with Robinho and drew out the goalkeeper to squeeze in the angled drive from the tightest of angles.
Taye Taiwo’s horrible fresh-air clearance allowed Jefferson Farfan to cross into the box, but Huntelaar nodded over from six yards.
It was nearly 2-0 on 77 minutes, as the goalkeeper beat away a snapshot from the edge of the box and Simone Andrea Ganz turned the follow-up off target.
Schalke 0-1 Milan
Scorers: Emanuelson 64 (M)
Schalke: Hildebrand (Fährmann 46); Uchida (Höwedes 69), Metzelder (Papadopoulos 46), Matip (Kolasinac 63), Escudero (Fuchs 46); Neustädter (Höger 46), Holtby (Baumjohann 63); Farfan (Klingenburg 69), Draxler (Moritz 46), Jurado (Barnetta 46); Pukki (Huntelaar 46)
Milan: Amelia; De Sciglio (Taiwo 65), Bonera (Yepes 46), Acerbi, Mesbah (Antonini 46); Flamini (Traoré 46), Ambrosini (Ganz 70), Emanuelson (Cristante 70); Boateng (Valoti 55); Robinho, El Shaarawy (Ganz 70)