Manchester United beats Milan in shootout
It took 13 rounds of penalties, but Manchester United defeated AC Milan 9-8 in a shootout after their International Champions Cup friendly finished 1-1 after 90 minutes at StubHub Center.
Manchester United opened the scoring in the 12th minute, as Juan Mata flicked the ball to Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez found himself in space behind Milan’s offside trap and slid the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma and into the net.
Just three minutes later, Milan equalized. Davide Calabria’s long pass landed right at the feet of Suso in front of goal and the Spanish forward converted.
Manchester United came close with some ambitious chances, including a corner kick from Andreas Pereira that was slightly too high and a 30-yard shot from an angle from Mata that was tipped over the bar by Donnarumma.
In the second half, chances were sparse until the closing minutes when Hanna Calhanoglu passed to Fabio Borini, whose shot from the left side of the box bounced back off the post.
The game went to a penalty shootout. Pereira, Ander Herrera and Sanchez each sent Jose Reina the wrong way, while for Milan, Joel Pereira got a hand on Calhanoglu’s attempt before saving Borini’s stutter-step kick with his foot. Franck Kessie converted for Milan and Reina saved Scott McTominay’s effort to keep the shootout alive, but when Suso missed, United were again one penalty away. Goalkeeper Pereira stepped up, but Reina saved before one-upping his opposite number by scoring a penalty of his own to force sudden death. When Reina saved Eric Bailly’s spot-kick, Alessio Romagnoli only had to score to win, but despite sending Pereira the wrong way he struck the post.
Reina saved from Ethan Hamilton, but Pereira did the same from Jose Mauri. Marek Darmian and Luca Antonelli then scored to force the teams to go back down their lineups.
Andreas Pereira and Calhanoglu both scored, but after Herrera converted, Kessie’s chipped penalty went over the bar to give United the victory.
The trend of low crowds for ICC games this preseason continued, as the announced attendance was 21,747.
