Full-time: Chelsea 3-1 Milan
And that’s it. A comfortable win for Chelsea. The game was even - in scoreline and performances - at half-time but Chelsea were by far the better team in the second 45 minutes, with Oscar and Hazard in particular causing problems for the Italians.
90 min: Two minutes of added time.
GOAL! Chelsea 3-1 Milan (Oscar 86 min)
And Oscar gets his second. He scampers between his markers on to a ball from Cuadrado and beats Donnarumma at his near post with a low shot. Nice finish, and a great appearance from the bench for Oscar.
85 min: Batshuayi finds space in the area but he loses control, lunges for the ball and fouls his marker.
82 min: I’m not saying the amount of subs in these games are ridiculous but Maldini, Costacurta, Baresi, Rivera and Tassotti come on for Milan. Or so it seems.
78 min: Hazard’s nose looks fine! So he has failed to break his own nose. A good failure all in all.
76 min: Unfortunate Injuries Department: Hazard blasts the ball in the general direction of the Milan goal, the shot is blocked and rebounds back into his face. He goes down with what looks like a broken nose. At least he knows he has a powerful shot though.
73 min: Hazard is starting to stretch the Milan defence - he’s fouled twice in the space of two minutes, and in a Champions League game the challenges would have resulted in yellows.
GOAL! Chelsea 2-1 Milan (Oscar 69min, pen)
Oscar makes no mistakes: he steps up, stops, starts ... and blasts the ball home.
PENALTY TO CHELSEA
Azpilicueta’s cross is handled and the ref points to the spot!
66 min: Cahill rises to meet a (who else?) Willian corner but he gets under the ball and the law of physics state the ball must go up and up and up. WHich is good news for the laws of the universe but bad news for Chelsea’s hopes of taking the lead.
62 min: Abate is off and is replaced by Montolivo. In non-substitution news, the excellent Niang gets free and squares the ball across the face of goal but no Milan players attack the space and the danger passes.
59 min: Fabregas comes off for Oscar.
58 min: Willian goes on an unopposed run down the right and crashes in a shot at Donnarumma, who leaves a little too much room at the near post. But the keeper makes up for it, regaining his positioning to pull off a great one-handed save.
54 min: Abate scurries up the right flank but Chelsea stop him before he can cause too much damage. Or any damage.
51 min: Hazard and Kante are on for Traore and Moses, who both had good first halfs.
48 min: Oh! Chance for Milan! Niang holds the ball up on the edge of the area with impressive strength and squares it to Abate but it doesn’t come off. Then Niang has another chance but his shot flashes wide. Two good chances, with Niang at the centre of both of them but Milan can’t exploit either.
46 min: And we’re back again. “I confess to having no interest in this match or the two teams involved,” says Phil Withall. “However I feel obliged to follow it now in solidarity with you. I’m a sucker for overworked journalists, they’re like pictures of sad puppies.”
Half-time: Chelsea 1-1 Milan
The ref decides there was seven seconds of added time, which seems fair. Or maybe he just wants to get out and see the treats that Minneapolis has to offer. Anyway, 1-1 is a fair scoreline at the half - Chelsea dominated early with Moses and Traore offering plenty of attack but that lovely free-kick boosted Milan as the clock ticked down.
Traore goal! https://t.co/USJwJOWFvt
— Mourinholic (@Mourinholic) August 4, 2016
I skrivande stund står det 1-1 mellan Milan och Chelsea. Men kolla in den pärlan av ingen annan än vår käraste... https://t.co/efyB0DbVTY
— MilanSverige.se (@ACMilanSverige) August 4, 2016
Updated
43 min: Milan seem to have been revived by that goal and are finishing the half the stronger team.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-1 Milan (Bonaventura 39)
This time Courtois can’t do anything about Milan’s shot though. A brilliant free-kick from Bonaventura curls round the wall and beats the Belgian at his near post. Not much Courtois could have done about it though - it was a stunning shot.
35 min: Courtois has a little trouble tracking a swirling shot from Milan, but just about punches it to safety.
32 min: Milan enjoy a reasonable bout of pressure - their best of the match - and a good cross is played into Niang. Aina gets to the ball first though and heads over his own bar. Chelsea much the sharper team both in defence and in attack at the moment. Azpilicueta then tries a long-range shot, which is beautifully struck, but drifts wide of the post.
29 min: It looks like Chelsea may score again but a) it’s offside and b) Matic’s volley is well saved. A quick free-kick from Fabregas created the chance, the Milan players seemed to be having a pre-season nap at the time.
27 min: Milan try to hit back quickly – they win a corner but Azpilicueta is fouled in the Chelsea area and the Blues are free to clear.
GOAL Chelsea 1-0 Milan (Traore 25)
Little surprise it’s Traore with the first goal. A long throw is played on to Moses, whose low shot is parried by Donnarumma. Traore is unmarked and taps the ball into an empty net.
23 min: Corner for Chelsea, which Fabregas fires across but Cahill is called for the foul and Milan can clear.
21 min: Traore, who has looked good for Chelsea tonight, tries a first-time shot and Donnarumma eventually handles it safely. Not the most convincing of saves.
19 min: After that scare, Chelsea are content to pass the ball around at the back. Are they playing for a draw already? In a pre-season friendly?
16 min: Milan drift a shot across the Chelsea goal but no one is there to tap the shot in. “I can safely say you’ve got at least two people following this match. One’s in Canada and the other’s in Australia,” says Salman Amjad. “I guess we could call that a global audience.” And I’m in the US so we only need another 190 or so and we have the UN. If Donald Trump still thinks the US should be in the UN.
13 min: Costa is nearly in but Palette scoots in quick to clear for a throw in. A free-kick ensues and it’s a beautifully flighted ball on to the head of Costa, who is five yards out. His header fails to cause any problems though - a bad miss.
9 min: The teams exchange blows in midfield but the pace is slow as the game takes shape. Tom Maxwell has some consoling words in my soon to be 16 hour day: “I’d just sack it off personally... Surely anyone who really cares about the match enough to stay up until 3-4AM to watch it, is probably actually watching it? Beer and bed I reckon.” Sack it off? When there’s the possibility of this going to penalties? Never!
6 min: Traore causes some problems on the edge of the area, and wins a free-kick and a ripped shirt. Willian takes the set piece but it’s handled easily enough by Milan.
3 min: Diego Costa gets a blow to the head, which takes the “friendly” out of this pre-season friendly pretty damn sharpish. Everyone stays friends for now and no punches, kicks or headbutts are exchanged.
1 min: And we’re off at the MetLife, Milan with an early attack down the left and Courtois has to save well from Paletta. I would bring you in-depth analysis of the build-up to this match but I was watching the Mets-Yankees game until about 10 minutes ago when I was called in as a last-minute sub when our other writer’s internet failed. I can, however, tell you that the Mets are unable to manufacture a run with runners in scoring position. Pathologically so.
Your teams:
Here's our team to face Milan: Courtois; Aina, Terry (c), Cahill, Azpilicueta; Matic, Fabregas; Willian, Traore, Costa, Moses. #CFCTour
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 4, 2016
#ACMilan's XI vs @ChelseaFC:
— AC Milan (@acmilan) August 4, 2016
Donnarumma; Abate Paletta Romagnoli Calabria; Kucka Poli Bonaventura; Suso Luiz Adriano Niang#ACMCFC #ICC2016
Hello, and apologies for the late start. Internet issues mean Aaron is unable to do tonight’s report, so I’m stepping in. I started work 14 hours ago, so you can imagine this is an absolute thrill for me. Go Chelsea!
Aaron will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s Paul Doyle on Chelsea’s outlook for the new season:
Chelsea did not defend their title last season so much as prosecute it for fraud, so it is going to be fascinating to see what sort of case they put forward this time. Their new manager, Antonio Conte, has a gleaming record, a shrewd approach to tactics and a maniacal will to win, but it is not yet clear that he has the players to make good on his declared intention to transform Chelsea into a “little war machine”.
Some players appeared on their last legs last season while others seemed plain lily-livered or had their hearts and minds elsewhere. Conte will have to wring improved performances from at least some of those or promote from the youth ranks and use the transfer market. Probably he will try to do all three in varying doses; if he gets it right in a division in which all rivals also appear to have flaws, then Chelsea could conceivably be champions again. But if he doesn’t find a winning formula quickly, then they could remain estranged from the top four, a currently high-flying manager could be sent on his bike and there will be a belated mass purge at Stamford Bridge.
Two causes for optimism arrived in the persons of Chelsea’s two major player recruits, Michy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kanté, both of whom look well suited to Conte’s forceful style. Paying £33m for a striker who is not fully polished shows the level to which inflation has climbed but Batshuayi has the potential to make a big impact on the Premier League and does not seem inclined to distract himself with senseless spoiling for a fight, which gives him an edge on Diego Costa for one.
One thing that seems certain about Conte’s planned formation is that it will include two strikers, as the manager ends Chelsea’s long preference for a lone forward fulcrum. The Italian has also hinted that he is open to ending Costa’s tetchy relationship with the club, a move that seems in everyone’s interests, and that could lead to Batshuayi being partnered by a new arrival – or a returnee if Chelsea prise back Romelu Lukaku from Everton. Conte would then have to demonstrate his coaching skills by honing the two young Belgians into a consistently deadly strikeforce; and if the manager can do likewise with the gifted Bertrand Traoré, then Chelsea would have fearsome and very fast attacking options before there is any need to wonder about Loïc Rémy’s ability to contribute.
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