Milan finally kick-started their season with a 4-0 demolition of Venezia in the opening 30 minutes, with Theo Hernandez, Youssouf Fofana, Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham on target.
The Rossoneri were feeling the pressure after two points from three rounds, so Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez returned after their controversial benching against Lazio. Tammy Abraham got his first start, with Alvaro Morata and Luka Jovic not fully fit, Davide Calabria, Malick Thiaw, Ismael Bennacer and Alessandro Florenzi injured. The Lagunari missed Bjarki Bjarkason, but had Gaetano Oristanio and Gianluca Busio back in the starting XI.
It took all of 89 seconds to break the deadlock, as Theo Hernandez burst down the left, received the return pass from Rafael Leao with a bizarre back-heel flick on the half-turn and squeezed the finish past the goalkeeper at the near post. The France international celebrated referring to the recent controversy by putting a ‘silence’ finger to his lips and holding the other hand to his ear.
Tijjani Reijnders was being played in the more advanced trequartista role and his pull-back from the by-line was crucially intercepted by Jay Idzes to stop the Christian Pulisic tap-in. However, Milan doubled their lead on the resulting Pulisic corner, flicked on by Youssouf Fofana at the near post and seemingly bundled in off Matteo Gabbia’s knee. However, the Lega Serie A later changed it to give Fofana the credit for the goal, as it came off Joronen’s arm.
Reijnders saw his angled drive parried by Jesse Joronen, but the goalkeeper brought down Abraham on the rebound for a penalty, which was converted by Pulisic.
Moments later, Joel Schingtienne trod on Rafael Leao’s foot for another Milan penalty, this one spotted by VAR rather than the referee, and Abraham sent Joronen the wrong way for his first Rossoneri goal.
It was the first time since October 1958 that Milan had managed to score four goals in the opening 30 minutes of a Serie A match, back then against Alessandria.
Gaetano Oristanio fired straight at Mike Maignan, while Joronen kept the scoreline down with a save on Rafael Leao after the restart.
Venezia had scored on 72 minutes with Francesco Zampano on a poor Emerson Royal clearance, but VAR showed the move was started by a terrible Hans Nicolussi Caviglia foul on Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s ankle. So the goal was disallowed and it was also a second booking for the Venezia player.
