By Anna Italia
Follow me in Twitter @ItalianSerieA,
Facebook: Anna Italia Page

Here are the declarations of AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic after losing the friendly match:  Olympique Lyon 2 – 1 AC Milan on 18 July 2015.

Mihajlovic saying, “We knew that they were further ahead than us in terms of pre-season training. We changed our formation and are further behind in terms of training. It’s never nice to lose, but I am happy considering at what stage we’re at in pre-season. We played out the match well. We could have done better and we will do better. There are some players still not up to the fitness levels of those players that started pre-season from the beginning. The squad is following me and my staff and that’s the way it always has to be. We tried to carry out what we have practiced in training. For the start of the season, we will be ready physically, technically and tactically. Bacca, Luiz Adriano, Menez, Zapata are all players that will give us a big hand and that can make the difference. Calabria did well and if he doesn’t get ahead of himself, which I am sure he won’t, he will have a brilliant future.”

Milan were edged out 2-1 by Lyon at the Stade de Gerland.

(IN THE PHOTO: Niang and co. during the match)  

MILAN – The friendly between Lyon-Milan on Saturday night at the Stade de Gerland ended 2-1 in favour of the French side.

The rossoneri travelled to France for what was their third pre-season friendly after previous wins over Alcione and Legnano.

Milan enjoyed more of the possession in the opening exchanges, keeping the ball well and winning a series of corners, but unable to work the Lyon goalkeeper or fashion out any clear-cut chances.

That changed on 19 minutes however when Niang latched onto a superb through ball by Suso and showed great strength to work himself into a shooting position before shooting agonisingly wide of the far post with an angled drive.

Despite a bright start by the rossoneri, it was the home side that broke the deadlock against the run of play when Fekir curled a free-kick past Diego Lopez on 24 minutes.

Milan pushed forward in the closing stages of the first half in a bid to find an equaliser with Bonaventura trying his luck from distance, but firing over the bar.

SECOND HALF:

Poli and Cerci were two of four changes made at half-time by Mihajlovic and the two Italians combined well with Poli running onto a Cerci assist only to send his effort off target.

At the other end, Diego Lopez was at his best to deny Jallet from making it 2-0 for the French side, blocking the Frenchman’s shot from close range, and Mexes was there to head away the danger.

It proved to be a decisive save from the Spaniard because moments later Poli found the equaliser in spectacular fashion, rifling the ball past Lopes with an unstoppable right foot screamer from distance.

Poli was in determined mood and was at full stretch minutes later on a Matri assist which he was unable to keep on target.

Nonetheless, it was the home side that went on to restore their lead on 80 minutes through Lacazette and it proved to be the game’s winning goal.

This is how the two teams started the match:

LYON: Lopes; Jallet, Umtiti, Rose, Bedimo; Tolisso, Gonalons (C), Ferri; Fekir; Beauvue, Njie.
Subs: Gorgelin, Benzia, Grenier, Kalulu, Kone, Labidi, Lacazette, Malbranque, Mvuemba, Zeffane.

MILAN: Diego Lopez; Calabria, Alex, Ely, De Sciglio; De Jong, Nocerino, Bertolacci; Bonaventura; Niang, Suso.
Subs: Abbiati; Donnarumma, Paletta, Antonelli, Mauri, Honda, Poli, Montolivo, Mexes, Cerci, Matri.

By Anna Italia
Follow me in Twitter @ItalianSerieA,
Facebook: Anna Italia Page

Here are the photos of the friendly match Olympique Lyon 2 – 1 AC Milan at the Gerland Stadium on 18 July 2015 courtesy of acmilan.com

AC Milan bench before the match against Olympique Lyon

AC Milan midfielder Antonio Nocerino

Andrea Bertolacci

Davide Calabria wearing number 96

Mattia De Sciglio dueling with Ferri

M’Baye Niang with a left footed shot

Rodrigo Ely wearing number 15

AC Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic giving instructions to his players during the match

AC Milan forward Keisuke Honda

Andrea Poli celebrating after scoring a goal to equalize for the 1-1

AC Milan forward Alessio Cerci

AC Milan captain Riccardo Montolivo and Jose Mauri

Captain Riccardo Montolivo

Jose Mauri dueling to control the ball