Pulisic sparks Milan comeback in Super Cup semi
AC Milan reached the Italian Super Cup final after coming from behind to beat Juventus 2-1 on Friday in Sérgio Conceição’s first game in charge, setting up a derby decider with Inter Milan.
Milan will play Inter in Monday’s final, after the Serie A champions overcame Atalanta 2-0 in their semifinal meeting on Thursday, where Conceição could immediately get his hands on a trophy after replacing the sacked Paulo Fonseca as Milan manager on Monday.
The expected intrigue of a father against son battle failed to materialise, after Juventus winger Francisco Conceição was named in the starting 11 but was withdrawn after picking up an injury in the warm-up.
Conceição’s place was taken by Kenan Yildiz, and after a slow, cagey start to the game, it was the Turkish forward who broke the deadlock in the 21st minute.
A through pass from Samuel Mbangula caught the Milan defence off guard and found Yildiz who took the ball into the area before smashing his shot into the roof of the net, beating Milan keeper Mike Maignan at his near post.
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The second half began with another Yildiz effort going just wide in the opening seconds, and shortly afterwards, he played a low pass across the area but Dusan Vlahovic sent his effort wide.
Milan had a massive chance to equalise from a corner kick when the ball fell to Theo Hernández, but he somehow managed to send a shot over the bar from close range.
The game at last opened up and Nicolò Savona‘s foul on Hernández gave Milan a penalty kick in the 71st minute which Christian Pulisic sent straight down the middle to beat Michele Di Gregorio.
Milan went ahead four minutes later, through an own goal. Yunus Musah‘s cross took a wicked deflection off Juve defender Federico Gatti which took the ball past Di Gregorio who had come off his line.
“For our second-half performance, we deserved the final. In the first half I saw a Milan with many doubts, like a few weeks ago,” Conceição told SportMediaset.
“Then we spoke at half-time. We had to understand what we had to do to win and they were really brave.”
Deep into added time, Juventus had one last chance to send the game to penalties, but Gatti’s volleyed effort from close range went just wide.
The Milan manager embraced his son after the game before celebrating with his players, and Conceição will now aim to stop Inter from winning their fourth consecutive Super Cup trophy.
“The second half was completely different, but we haven’t done anything yet,” Conceição said.
“We have one less day of rest and this is an important factor.”
