Adrien Rabiot made an incredible impact off the bench, assisting Alphadjo Cisse’s debut Serie A goal and scoring the second himself, as Milan won 2-1 away to Torino.
The Rossoneri had a mixed pre-season under new coach Ruben Amorim. Rafael Leao was out injured, Luka Modric and Adrien Rabiot delayed by the World Cup campaign, but Mike Maignan returned to the starting XI with new signings Goncalo Ramos and Mario Gila.
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.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
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.
Saul Coco flicked on a free kick to the back post, just beyond Giovanni Simeone, so Amorim threw on Modric and used Rabiot in a more advanced role to replace Loftus-Cheek.
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.
The Granata wasted a golden opportunity late on when Njie floated the cross to the back post, only for Aboukhlal to incredibly volley wide from close range.
Torino did get one back in stoppages with an astonishing acrobatic finish from Che Adams, who hooked the free kick back over his head on the volley to loop it past Maignan’s fingertips into the far top corner.
Torino 1-2 Milan
Cisse 64 (M), Rabiot 66 (M), Adams 93 (T)
Player statistic
| 52' |  |
Ruben Loftus-Cheek | ||
| 64' | Alphadjo Cissè (Assist: Adrien Rabiot) | |||
| 66' |  |
Adrien Rabiot (Assist: Samuel Chukwueze) |
