MILAN lost unfortunately on penalties to the hosts of the Audi cup earlier tonight. In a game which Bayern dominated thanks to their fitness advantage the Rossoneri took an early lead through a well worked Ibrahimovic goal. The big Swede set up Cassano not long after but Cassano failed to convert. Before half time Bayern levelled the score, and after a goalless second half, the hosts won on pens.

Lining up in the brand new away kit were Christian Abbiati, with Taye Taiwo, Daniele Bonera, Alessandro Nesta and Ignazio Abate in front of him. In midfield, a trio of Urby Emmanuelson, Mark van Bommel and Gennaro Gattuso made up the midfield behind Kevin-Prince Boateng, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antonio Cassano in attack.

The match started off with Bayern on top, they were clearly much fitter as they were just 10 days from the start of their pre-season, the home side looked much more energetic and threatened early on.

Bayern Munich-AC Milan: Official line-ups

Mazzari: “Ibrahimovic makes the difference”

Milan were looking to slow it down a bit and keep it, the ball was passed across the field, A brilliant ball over the top from Daniele Bonera put Zlatan Ibrahimovic through on goal, and the big Swede brought it down and took it on brilliantly before clinically planting the ball into the bottom left corner of the net, a brilliant goal!

With 6 minutes on the clock, Bayern very nearly levelled the score, as Alessandro Nesta was caught in possession by Mario Gomez, however, as he passed it wide to Schweinsteiger, Abbiati covered his near post well and put it out well for a corner.

Only 5 miuntes later, Bayern were back on top and dominating the game, however, it was Milan who came close to scoring next. Zlatan Ibrahimovic once again at the heart of the action, bringing the ball down well and managed to play a nice ball through for Antonio Cassano! Cassano was 1 on 1 but this time Manuel Neuer distinguished himself with a fine save, however, Cassano perhaps should have scored, rather than could.

Approaching the 20 minute mark, and the game was very open. Clearly Bayern had a physical edge being much fitter, and they looked threatening going forward too, however, despite their dominance of possession they hadn’t created that many clear cut chances, while Milan looked very dangerous on the counter.

Moments later and Bayern should have been level. Following some superb build up play, Mario Gomez showed a terrific turn of pace to break into the Milan box, and following a clever cut back had a free shot on goal, but he snapped at it and blasted the ball over the crossbar, squandering as good a chance as Cassano’s for Milan.

Half time was just over 11 minutes away, but Bayern (deservedly) levelled it. The ball was played out wide to Robben – who controlled it with his arm (the referee missed/didn’t give a handball) – the ball ended up on the edge of the area, where Toni Kroos struck it hard and low, finding the bottom right corner. It’s easy to say Abbiati could have done better but he saw it late and the ball was as far in the corner as it could have been.

5 minutes before the interval and Bayern were piling on the pressure, as Rafinha burst into the Milan box, he let off a thunderous strike, which Christian Abbiati did well to dive and tip onto the crossbar and out for a corner, a terrific save.

At half time it was clear that Bayern were closer to match fitness than Milan, and their equaliser was well deserved, they probably deserved the lead in all honesty, however, Milan defended well (despite tiring by the end of the half) and if Cassano had taken his chance as well as Ibrahimovic the story might have been different.

Oddly, at half time, Massimiliano Allegri replaced Gennaro Gattuso and Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Alberto Paloschi and Massimo Ambrosini

Almost instantly Abbiati was forced to make a smart save, and Bayern dominated the opening 10 minutes of the half. Near the end of that period Lahm was allowed time and space to shoot from outside the area and hit a thunderous shot, fortunately, Christian Abbiati was up to the task and dived high to his left to save it.

With 60 minutes on the clock, Valoti, Robinho, Thiago Silva, Antonini were brought on for Nesta, Boateng, Cassano and Abate by Massimiliano Allegri.

Less than 10 minutes after the substitutions, and following some awful play from Daniele Bonera, Gomez was clean through 1 on 1 albeit with the ball ahead of him rather than under his control, thankfully, Christian Abbiati pulled off a great save to keep the scoreline level at 1-1.

For the last 5 minutes or so, Massimo Oddo was brought on to replace Taye Taiwo, and minutes later Urby Emmanuelson was taken off for Alexandre Pato.

In truth the substitutions caused the game to fizzle out, there were no clear cut chances after them and no big moments afterwards, if anything it was a disappointment following the first 2/3 of the game, and so it went to penalties.

Alaba scored Bayern’s first pen and Robinho did well to score his with good power. Mario Gomez put Bayern back in front, before Oddo made it 2-2. Thomas Mueller sent Abbiati the wrong way, before Thiago Silva followed suit for 3-3. Kroos stepped up for Bayern’s 4th, and made no mistake, before Paloschi stepped up and put his effort way over the bar, making it 4-3 to Bayern going in to the last penalty. Unfortunately Bastian Schweinsteiger wrong footed Abbiati to give the home side the win.

Best Moment: Ibra’s opener

Man of the Match: Abbiati – the scoreline could have been much worse without him!