Milan completed a desperate comeback from 2-0 down at the 89th minute to hold Torino 2-2 at San Siro with Alvaro Morata and Noah Okafor, but Paulo Fonseca has a lot of work to do.
The Rossoneri made their competitive debut under new coach Fonseca, but he opted to rest Theo Hernandez for Alexis Saelemaekers as a makeshift left-back against Toro’s 3-5-2 formation. Alvaro Morata and Emerson Royal were also not ready, with Alessandro Florenzi, Alex Jimenez and Marco Sportiello injured. The Granata under new boss Paolo Vanoli missed Nikola Vlasic, Pietro Pellegri, Perr Schuurs, Gvidas Gineitis and Zanos Savva.
See how it all unfolded on the LIVEBLOG.
The hosts had a huge chance after just six minutes, as Malick Thiaw’s header was cleared off the line by Adam Masina from a corner and Rafael Leao turned the rebound over.
Duvan Zapata scuffed the finish wide when running on goal, but Torino took the lead in truly bizarre fashion. Duvan Zapata’s cross found a Raoul Bellanova header at the back post, which looped onto the inside of the far post, bounced on the line and then Thiaw accidentally dragged it over with his attempted clearance. Goal-line technology did not activate to confirm, but VAR did.
It was nearly 2-0 from a corner when Mike Maignan used his legs to parry a Duvan Zapata header from six yards.
Milan could’ve done better with Rafael Leao launched by a Ruben Loftus-Cheek pass from his own half, but one-on-one the Portuguese star was denied by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.
Maignan had to rescue the Rossoneri again at the near bottom corner on the Ivan Ilic finish after Bellanova again got away to pull back from the right, a Duvan Zapata dummy setting him up.
After the restart, Christian Pulisic failed to make the most of a poor back-pass, so Milan made a triple substitution, including Alvaro Morata.
The Spaniard thought he had earned a penalty within minutes of coming on, but the referee changed his mind after the VAR review showed Saul Coco had got the ball with a fantastic sliding tackle.
Moments later, Torino doubled their lead instead with a well-worked move. Valentin Lazaro completed a give-and-go with Ilic down the left and stood up a cross with his weaker foot for the Duvan Zapata free header from six yards.
Pulisic wasted another opportunity by firing over from close range and it should’ve been 3-0 on the counter when Yann Karamoh over-hit the pass for an unmarked Che Adams.
Milan had the ball in the net, but Morata was offside when turning in the rebound from the Tijjani Reijnders effort off the base of the near post.
Reijnders also floated a sensational ball over the top for Leao, who stumbled when controlling and the opportunity went begging.
They did get one back at the 89th minute when another Reijnders attempt was redirected by goal-poacher Morata from close range to wrong-foot Milinkovic-Savic and set up a fiery finale.
It paid off, as Milan equalised deep into stoppages with two substitutes combining, Yunus Musah’s cross whipped in from the right for Noah Okafor to volley in from 10 yards relatively undisturbed.
Milan 2-2 Torino
Thiaw og 30 (T), Duvan Zapata 68 (T), Morata 89 (M), Okafor 95 (M)
Player statistic
| 30' |  |
Malick Thiaw | ||
| 45+2' |  |
Mërgim Vojvoda | ||
| 45+2' | |
Samuele Ricci |
| Luka Jovic | |
57' | ||
| 68' |  |
Duván Zapata (Assist: Valentino Lazaro) | ||
| Álvaro Morata (Assist: Tijjani Reijnders) |
|
89' | ||
| Álvaro Morata | |
90' | ||
| Noah Okafor (Assist: Yunus Musah) |
|
90+5' | ||
| 90' | |
Adrien Tameze | ||
| 90+7' | |
Ali Dembélé |
Match statistic
The Fonseca effect is starting LOL
Milan only started 5 of their starters, whilst 2 more came off the bench in the late stages.
Once Fofana, Pavlovic and Emerson Royal are integrated, things will bee different.
What’s Inter‘s excuse for drawing 2-2 with a full starting XI?
I’m so so sorry for Vanoli and Torino. They totally deserved to win.
Whatever version of Milan is, 99.99% of Milanisti don’t even recognise it. So unrecognisable that Moncada himself preferred to look at his phone instead. They’ve ripped the identity out of the club completely.
Fonseca: make sure when you get distracted by a terrible penalty review that you all play defense on next play.
Team: huh?
Average club, average ownership, average coach, average players. Forever the 2nd team of Milano. Scudetto no chance. Second star 50 years.
Hey Table, was that supposed to be funny?