By Adegboyega Adeleye
A superb 84th-minute strike by Vinicius Jr. capped a remarkable second-half comeback for Real Madrid to secure a 3-2 victory over AC Milan in Pasadena, California, on Sunday.
Vinicius latched on to a long-range pass as he fired a shot past Mike Maignan to give Carlo Ancelotti’s side the win.
Jude Bellingham, who wore the number five shirt for Real Madrid – most famously worn by club legend Zinedine Zidane, played for 62 minutes and had a wonderful debut performance in Los Angeles.
The 20-year-old, who has won 24 caps for England showed flashes of his natural technique and confidence by creating a goal-scoring opportunity for Brahim Diaz.
“It is rare to find a player with this kind of quality,” Ancelotti said. “He is only 20, so he can improve. We are lucky to have him in our squad.
“He was fantastic. He has a lot of rhythm, moves well, and has quality finding open spaces.”
United States winger Christian Pulisic was also impressive as he made his debut since joining from Chelsea.
He started for Milan and claimed an assist for Tomori’s opener before being replaced by Rafael Leao in the 70th minute.
Match Report
Fikayo Tomori headed home a fantastic corner by debutant Christian Pulisic to put AC Milan in front, in the 25th minute as Luka Romero added a second to give Milan a commanding lead at half-time.
Ancelotti introduced Vinicius and Rodrygo after the break while Federico Valverde’s quick-fire brace brought Madrid back level before 60 minutes.
Valverde profited from defensive errors as a blunder by Milan goalkeeper, Marco Sportiello granted the first goal before an awful back-pass gifted the second as Vinicius scored the late winner.
“I’m already counting, I don’t know how many goals [Ancelotti] is going to want from me [this season],” Valverde said, after the Italian joked that he would “tear up his coaching license” if Valverde didn’t get into double figures last campaign. “I feel good. I’m motivated to keep winning things at this club.”
When asked about the change of system, Carlo Ancelotti, in his post-match news conference, said “I liked it,”
“There are some things we have to change a bit. It was hard for us to play out from the back… Bellingham’s positioning was good, he played a good game. The team has to get used to his quality.”
Real Madrid prepares for their next friendly against Manchester United in Houston’s NRG Stadium on Wednesday followed by a preseason El Clasico clash vs Barcelona in Arlington, Texas, on July 29 and their last match in the U.S. vs Juventus on Aug. 2.
AC Milan will continue their preseason tour in the U.S. with matches against Juventus on Thursday and Barcelona on Aug. 1.