AC Milan will kick off their summer friendly campaign with a trip across the border into Austria to face Rapid Wien at the Allianz Stadion.
There is an added bit of intrigue that surrounds this particular preseason curtain-raiser compared to previous years, when it would normally be a lower-league team who played at Milanello against what were normally mixed strength Milan teams, to put it kindly.
This time, it will be the first opportunity to see Paulo Fonseca’s Milan in action. Granted it is far from a competitive game, but there should still be some tangible signs of what he has been doing on the training ground in his first couple of weeks.
Date and time
The first of the friendlies that Milan will play this summer takes place on Saturday 20th at 17:30pm CEST at the Allianz Stadion, and it will be the only one before the squad leave for the American tour.
It is in the United States that the level will be raised, because the Soccer Champions Tour will put the Rossoneri against Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona, in New York, Chicago and Baltimore respectively.
For some context on the opponent, Rapid finished fourth in the Austrian Bundesliga last season with 11 wins, 12 draws and nine defeats in their 32 games. They have won the most Austrian league titles with 32, and their home stadium holds over 28,000.
Team news
Milan have had a lot of players on international duty this summer that are still on vacation and thus will not be available, starting with Yunus Musah and Christian Pulisic who took part in the Copa America and have been granted a period of rest.
Luka Jovic’s Serbia were knocked out in the European Championship group stage but he is on holiday, as are Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez, Rafael Leao, Tijjani Reijnders and the new signing Alvaro Morata.
Below is the squad that is likely to be available:
Goalkeepers: Nava, Raveyre, Sportiello, Torriani.
Defenders: Calabria, Florenzi, Gabbia, Jiménez, Kalulu, Simić, Terracciano, Thiaw, Tomori.
Midfielders: Adli, Bennacer, Loftus-Cheek, Pobega, Saelemaekers.
Forwards: Chukwueze, Colombo, Liberali, Maldini, Nasti, Romero, Traorè.
While waiting for the arrival of the players who have been involved in the national team, the attack will be entrusted to the young players who have just returned from loan spells in the 2023-24 season.
The starting role (temporarily) could go to Lorenzo Colombo, who returned to the Rossoneri after a season at Monza. The other attackers in the squad at present are Marco Nasti, Daniel Maldini, Chaka Traoré and Luka Romero.
Potential starting XI (4-2-3-1): Sportiello; Calabria, Tomori, Thiaw, Florenzi; Bennacer, Adli; Chukwueze, Loftus-Cheek, Traoré; Colombo.
How to watch
The match between Rapid Wien and Milan will be broadcast exclusively by DAZN in Italy. to watch it on TV you will need to download the DAZN app on a compatible smart TV or on a PlayStation or XBox console, or use devices such as Amazon Firestick, Google Chromecast or TIMVISION Box.
The game will be broadcast live in the UK on Premier Sports 2 and Premier Sports Player, while ESPN say that it will be live from ESPN+ on Watch ESPN, plus ESPN Deportes.