The Rossoneri had a mixed pre-season under new coach Ruben Amorim, with Rafael Leao out injured and Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot delayed by the World Cup campaign. Mike Maignan returned to the starting XI, and new signings Goncalo Ramos and Mario Gila were given a chance to shine. Toro coach Ignazio Abate had a long history with Milan, but made his debut squeezing past Carrarese 1-0 in the Coppa Italia last week. The pitch had emergency repairs after that match and was still patchy, with Eray Comert suspended, Duvan Zapata, Tino Anjorin, Pietro Pellegri and Franco Israel injured. New buys Pietro Comuzzo and Kian Fitz-Jim were thrown straight in.
Alphadjo Cisse almost scored within 75 seconds, but bundled onto the side-netting at the back post from a Ruben Loftus-Cheek roll across. Samuel Chukwueze went on a mazy run from the right to force a save out of Diego Mascardi, then floated a cross to the back post for Cisse to again hit the side-netting. Milan had strong penalty appeals on the hour mark when Cisse's cross was charged down by a wide Nikola Vlasic arm, but VAR evaluated the incident and agreed with the referee that the arm did not move towards the ball. This season, the referees are trying to take movement and context more into account rather than just the placement of the arm.
The Rossoneri did find their breakthrough when Rabiot in a more advanced role than usual floated the cross to Cisse, who chested it down and curled on the bounce into the far bottom corner with the inside of the right boot. It was the first Serie A goal for the 19-year-old talent. Moments later, Rabiot confirmed his remarkable impact by scoring another goal, ready at the back post for a cushioned volley on the Chukwueze cross. Toro replied with Alieu Njie cutting inside past Gila to smash his strike onto the upright from a tricky angle, then Pietro Comuzzo volleyed off target from 12 yards after a splendid Fitz-Jim ball floated over the top to spring the offside trap.