At full-time here at Gillette Stadium in Boston, AC Milan totally outplayed and outclassed Olimpia as they won comfortably 3-1.
Milan started with Robinho, Cassano and Ed Shaarawy up-front and the Honduras sides has not been able to cope with the movement and interchanging of the three Milan strikers. And if that wasn’t enough for Olimpia to deal with, Nocerino has been making these late runs into the box unmarked, from which he has scored twice already.
I saw Milan play Inter at Gillette a couple of years ago, and on that day Milan looked slow and old. That is not the case today. They look considerably faster.
The second half deteriorated as these games do, as both sides made a lot of changes. The constant substitutions combined with 93 degree heat, made for a very poor second half.
It is hard to gauge how good this new built Milan side will be this season as Olimpia were poor. A better gauge will be in midweek when they play Real Madrid.
But from today’s first hand performance, It looks like Milan will create lots of chances from the attacking troika they have (plus Pato). My only worry if I am a Milan fan is whether these four forwards have the clinical finishing needed to replace Zlatan Ibrahimović? Give Ibra two chances in a game and you know he will score one of them. Give Robinho, Pato or Cassano those same two chances and I am not convinced that you get the same goal scoring ratio.
Goals:
- 24 minute: Robinho (Nocerino assist)
- 37 minute: Nocerino (Robinho assist)
- 44 minute: Nocerino (Abate assist)
- 72 minute: Escalente (Olimpia) (Beckeles assist)