Christian Pulisic looked ready to continue building his resume in Milan as his goal helped them advance in the Coppa Italia, Gianluca Busio and Venezia were dominant against their upcoming Serie B rivals, however Jonathan Klinsmann and Cesena were left heartbroken after his fine penalty shootout performance went to waste.
AC Milan 2 – 0 Bari
Christian Pulisic picked up exactly where he left off last season, scoring and putting in a man-of-the-match performance for AC Milan as they shut down Bari to advance to the next round of the Coppa.
Starting atop the Rossoneri’s attack alongside Rafael Leao, Pulisic was a constant threat over his 66 minutes of play, hitting the woodwork in the first half in addition to his second-half score, setting up five additional chances, taking 10 corners for his team, while completing 88% of his 41 passing attempts.
Despite rumours of a transfer away from Milan, Yunus Musah also saw action for the hosts, taking over for Pulisic to create one chance and complete all 15 of his passing attempts.
Leao opened the scoring in the 14th minute, rising high at the edge of the six-yard box to head in a deep cross from the right flank by Fikayo Tomori.
Pulisic nearly doubled the lead shortly thereafter, first capitalizing on a turnover deep in Bari territory in the 22nd only to barely miss wide and high to the right, then finishing a Milan counter-attack at the 25-minute mark with a shot from the left side that was barely tipped off the crossbar by Bari keeper Michele Cerofolini.
He did get his goal just over two minutes after the break, again with a Bari turnover triggering the danger. Santiago Gimenez intercepted a bad ball directed towards the Bari defense, then immediately fed Pulisic rushing towards goal to his left. The American drove into the area, slid it back to Gimenez on his left, then quickly received the ball once again with his back to goal, before rotating to his right and burying the low six-yarder.
He was replaced after 66 minutes by fellow US National Teamer Musah for the remainder, with Bari seemingly happy to simply let the scoreline remain a respectable 2-0 loss.
Il Rossoneri now turn their attentions to the start of Serie A, where they will be expected to improve on their eighth-place finish last season, particularly with no European distractions on their plates. They have a relatively smooth start, as they host Cremonese, who were promoted to the division through the play-off.
Venezia 4 – 0 Mantova
Gianluca Busio began his stint as Venezia’s Captain America in grand fashion, playing the full 90 minutes in the team’s central midfield as they cruised to a big Coppa Italia victory over outmatched Mantova on Saturday.
Issa Doumbia got the team off to a quick start shortly before the 15-minute mark, collecting a pass from Ridgeciano Haps into the left side of the area and angling his low shot just under the keeper’s reach to the center of the goal.
Just into first-half added time, Doumbia received the ball from John Yeboa at the top edge of the area, took a touch to create space around his nearest defender, and fired a low, right-footed shot to the lower left corner for the 2-0 halftime lead.
Yeboah made it three for the hosts in the 57th minute, with some help from his captain. Busio chested down a high ball just outside the upper right corner of the area. Under pressure from Mantova’s César Falletti, it squirted forward to Yeboah, who hit a clinical finish just under the crossbar.
The the game all but decided, the Ecuadorian international netted his second of the half, recovering a turnover at the midfield line in a dead spring, and proceeding to outrun the three nearest defenders before chipping the keeper for the final 4-0 advantage.
The dominant win over a fellow Serie B competitor will give the Winged Lions that they will once again be able to bounce back to the top flight when the season begins next weekend. They begin their redemption tour on Sunday against Bari.
Cesena 0 – 0 Pisa (pen. 1-2)
Jonathan Klinsmann saw a strong penalty shootout performance go to waste thanks to an even better showing from his Pisa counterpart Adrian Semper, as Cesena were knocked out in the first round after only putting away one of their five attempts.
With Pisa managing only one shot on goal and five total attempts over the 90 minutes of regulation, the American had little to do, although did come up big when it mattered and nearly singled-handedly saw his team through.
While he was perhaps rather lucky that M’Bala Nzola headed Juan Cuadrado’s cross over the crossbar with five minutes to go, wasting Pisa’s best chance, his easy save off Alexander Lind’s weak pop-up shot in the sixth-minute of added time was indicative of the overall flaccid performance by the visitors’ attack.
Pisa caught a major break due to the competition rules sending drawn games directly to penalties after regulation instead of the typical 30 minutes of overtime; defender Arturo Calabresi was sent off in the final moments of regulation, meaning the team only had to hold on for injury time.
In the end, the game was decided by a keeper-dominated shoot-out – perhaps fitting considering the offensive woes of both sides in the preceding 90 minutes.
While only two of Pisa’s attempts went in to Klinsmann’s net – two being saved by the American and one being skied into the stratosphere – Pisa’s Semper was heroic, saving four of Cesena’s five, to see them through.
Klinsmann and his teammates begin their Serie B season on Friday with a visit to Pescara.
