{"id":35471,"date":"2025-07-31T17:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T17:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35471\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T17:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T17:55:14","slug":"serie-a-powerhouses-ac-milan-run-rings-around-perth-glory-in-9-0-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/35471\/","title":{"rendered":"Serie A powerhouses AC Milan run rings around Perth Glory in 9-0 demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

AC Milan have ended their WA stay on a high as the European giants put Perth Glory to the sword at HBF Park, steamrolling the A-League Men wooden spooners 9-0.<\/p>\n

In front of a crowd of 19,226, the gap between the Serie A\u2019s biggest team and the A-League\u2019s cellar-dwellers was there for all to see as Milan dazzled and ran rings around the Glory.<\/p>\n

In a game which felt akin to the Harlem Globetrotters\u2019 meetings with the Washington Generals, the star-studded Rossoneri ran riot, as Noah Okafor\u2019s quickfire double helped Milan to a 5-0 lead by half-time.<\/p>\n

The deluge of goals continued after the break; this was less death by a thousand cuts and more suffocation via avalanche as Milan refused to put the cue in the rack.<\/p>\n

\"PERTH,Camera IconPERTH, AUSTRALIA – JULY 31: Ruben Loftus-Cheek of AC Milan ctduring the match between Perth Glory and AC Milan at HBF Park on July 31, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane\/Getty Images) Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Even when the Italians slowed the game down, their ability to flip the switch and hit sixth gear so quickly allowed them to leave Glory in their wake, while their fluid movement had Perth chasing shadows.<\/p>\n

The hosts huffed and puffed, but an inability to take their chances coupled with the sheer class and weight of possession of Milan spoke volumes about the gap between the two sides.<\/p>\n

But Glory coach David Zdrilic said he and his side were not too despondent despite the lopsided scoreline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018m not going to read too much into playing against AC Milan. I\u2019m a little bit disappointed when we did have a couple of good chances at the end that we were not clinical enough to finish.<\/p>\n

\"PERTH,Camera IconPERTH, AUSTRALIA – JULY 31: Mark Birighitti of the Glory looks on during the match between Perth Glory and AC Milan at HBF Park on July 31, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane\/Getty Images) Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to just rely on Tags (captain Adam Taggart) and to create two very clear opportunities couple in the first half, but those two late, they\u2019re very clear and we should at least score one of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to add a couple more players as well, especially up front, to help Tags, because every time the ball went up, if Tags is flicking it on, we lost the ball…it\u2019s not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milan\u2019s supremacy in almost every aspect of the game was obvious from the opening whistle, and it took them just three minutes to make it count on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n

Okafor\u2019s clever flick found Filippo Terracciano in space and the full-back fired underneath Mark Birighitti\u2019s body to open the scoring.<\/p>\n

\"PERTH,Camera IconPERTH, AUSTRALIA – JULY 31: Noah Okafor of AC Milan looks on during the match between Perth Glory and AC Milan at HBF Park on July 31, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane\/Getty Images) Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Up the other end, Adam Taggart was inches away from tucking Arion Sulemani\u2019s low cross home, but that was as close as the Glory got in the opening 45.<\/p>\n

Milan were playing with their food and the biggest gulf between the two teams was the Italians\u2019 physicality and acceleration off the dribble, which allowed them to shrug off any attempted interventions by Perth\u2019s defenders.<\/p>\n

This was best illustrated by Alex Jimenez\u2019s electric run in the 23rd minute, which saw him hold off Trent Ostler and glide past three opponents before his square ball wrong-footed Brian Kaltak and Okafor made it 2-0.<\/p>\n

Four minutes later, Jimenez\u2019s dangerous pass across the face of goal was only partially dealt with by Scott Wootton, and although Wootton deflected Ruben Loftus-Cheek\u2019s follow-up, the ball rolled to Okafor for the easiest of finishes.<\/p>\n

\"PERTH,Camera IconPERTH, AUSTRALIA – JULY 31: Brian Kaltak of the Glory is challenges Samuel Chukwueze of AC Milan during the match between Perth Glory and AC Milan at HBF Park on July 31, 2025 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane\/Getty Images) Credit: Paul Kane\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was 4-0 before the half-hour mark when Kaltak clattered into Comotto in the box and the midfielder converted his penalty with a classy \u2018panenka\u2019, before the lively Samuel Chukwueze finished off a counter-attack with a rasping strike.<\/p>\n

Less than 15 seconds after the restart, a completely fresh Milan line-up made it 6-0 as Portuguese star Rafael Leao raced onto a flick-on and coolly slotted home.<\/p>\n

Milan fans were in party mode in the stands, and found themselves in seventh heaven when Samuele Ricci fired home a bullet before the hour mark.<\/p>\n

Joel Anasmo and Nathanael Blair had Perth\u2019s chance of the second half when Glory caught their opponents on the break, but the former lofted his chance well over the bar and the latter shot straight at Pietro Terracciano in goal.<\/p>\n

The icing on the cake was applied by Yunus Musah, who arrowed a shot into the roof of the net from an acute angle, before Leao grabbed a second with five minutes to play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AC Milan have ended their WA stay on a high as the European giants put Perth Glory to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[32406,64,63,32407,13198,588,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-35471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-a-league","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-perth-glory","12":"tag-soccer","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}