FROM KAKÁ TO HIGUAIN: AC MILAN AFTER THE ICC

Following our tour, our preparation for the league really comes to life: the Rossoneri's summer friendlies in past years

The International Champions Cup brings with it charm, prestige, a great audience and a dazzling spotlight. This very first part of pre-season preparation is usually used by teams to avoid making a bad impression on live TV against quality opponents. Now that the ICC is over, Coach Giampaolo, his staff and his players will take note of what needs to be improved and look to put the finishing touches on their preparation for the first days of the season. Before Milan face Udinese and Brescia, they have a friendly match on 10 August against FC Feronikeli in Kosovo, as well as a potential fixture on 17 August. In previous years, the post-ICC friendly matches have always brought something special with them.

On 7 September 2013, for example, having already secured Champions League qualification, Il Diavolo took to the pitch in Chiasso. Aside from the final result, a 4-0 win for the Rossoneri, the match had a very important symbolic meaning: Ricardo Kaká’s return to the pitch in a Milan shirt after four years away from home. In the summer of 2014, after a trio of ICC matches, Milan found a new summer goalscorer: Keisuke Honda, with the Japanese attacker scoring both against Pro Piacenza on 14 August and away to Valencia on 17 August. A year later the Rossoneri travelled to the Audi Cup after their American tour was over. Two defeats against Bayern Munich and Tottenham did nothing to discourage Mihajlović who, later in September, went on to win 3-2 in Mantua with Mario Balotelli back amongst the goals.

The 2016 summer schedule saw the team, at the time led by Montella, play two interesting friendly matches before and after their opening league game: Milan beat Freiburg 2-1 thanks to two goals from Luiz Adriano on 14 August, then beat Bournemouth by the same scoreline with an excellent performance by goalkeeper Plizzari at the beginning of September. Fast forward to the next summer on August 9, 2017, playing at the Massimino in Catania: Milan lost 2-1 to Real Betis as Bonucci played his first game with the armband and André Silva scored his first goal for the club. Finally, we witnessed the first ever VAR experiments on the pitch in one of these fixtures. Last summer, on 11 August 2018, Higuaín's great finish drew us level at the Bernabéu after Benzema opened the scoring, but this wasn’t enough to avoid a defeat to Madrid.

A reminder that applications for season tickets for the 2019/20 season are still open. You can also buy tickets to Milan v Brescia, our first home game in the new Serie A season.