Manchester City defeated AC Milan 5-3 to make it through to the Audi Cup Final in Munich.
David Silva, Micah Richards, Aleksander Kolarov and Edin Dzeko all got on the score-sheet as Manchester City blew the Italians away to register an astonishing 5-0 scoreline after 36 minutes before a Stephan El Shaarawy brace and a composed Andrea Petagna finish turned the game around all in a scintillating first half.
Manchester City started well and immediately asserted their supremacy on the match by dominating possession and it wasn’t long before they went ahead through Silva. Jesus Navas beat Muntari with ease and crossed for Stevan Jovetic who controlled the ball for Silva to poke it past goalkeeper Marco Amelia.
City were all over Milan and new signing Jherson Vergara had to make two excellent tackles to deny Jovetic and Dzeko. But City were not to be denied for much longer and such was their supremacy that right back Richards found himself one on one with Amelia and though he scuffed his shot the first time, he managed to bundle the ball home for City’s second.
The Rossoneri’s defence was all over the place as Jovetic played a lovely ball through for Kolarov who made no mistake and drilled the ball into the bottom right hand corner.
It took Milan 26 minutes to register a shot on goal when Kevin Prince Boateng put a snapshot into the stands.
Just after the half hour mark Jesus Navas put in a dangerous grounded cross for an unmarked Dzeko to tap home and put the Premier League side 4-0 up.
Dzeko was at the end of a sumptuous Yaya Toure ball when he excellently chested and volleyed the ball past Amelia. Milan were 5-0 down after just 36 minutes and were risking serious humiliation in Munich.
But El Shaarawy went up the other end, robbed Javi Garcia of possession and slotted home expertly giving City goalkeeper Joe Hart no chance. Extraordinarily enough, the Italian striker made it 5-2 moments later after rounding Joe Hart and slotting home.
The Diavolo had finally sparked into life and created chance after chance in an attempt to get back into the match.
And it was 5-3 minutes later when City showed some woeful defending themselves to let Petagna get on the end of a long ball to finish in between the legs of the onrushing City goalkeeper.
The half time whistle came too soon at the end of a pulsating surreal first half that flew by and had an astonishing eight goals.
Both sides rang the changes at half time and Milan started brightly with M’Baye Niang scampering up the City half.
Gabriel, who came on for Amelia at half time, almost gifted Samir Nasri a sixth goal when he went wandering aimlessly and tried to latch onto a loose ball, only to let it slip from under his grip and give the Frenchman an open goal albeit from a tight angle.
El Shaarawy and Boateng both had brilliant chances to put Milan within a goal of the former English champions but didn’t make the most of their chances.
Just after the hour mark Garcia’s bullet header from a corner was straight at Gabriel who palmed it away confidently.
Substitutes Antonio Nocerino and Andrea Poli combined brilliantly and the latter almost went pass Hart to score.
City seemed content to knock the ball around with about a quarter of an hour to go but Alvaro Negredo had other ideas as he fired in a ferocious shot from outside the box onto the crossbar with Milan’s Brazilian keeper easily beaten.
The pace of the match dropped off towards the end as both teams seemed to accept the result.
Crazy game! That would have been hard to summarize.
hahaha, that is the first thing that came to my mind, too. It took me forever to summarize Parma-Marseille, I can’t imagine dealing with this. 🙂
Thanks guys 🙂
Shame on Milan defense, 5 goals in 36 min, I think Man.City let Milan score these goals. No one tell me the 4 defenders are substitutes. Milan needs a super defender, Mexes & Zapata are good players but Milan needs defender with personality to lead the defense. Ironically they buy another loser (Silvesteri).