With fans back in attendance at the San Siro, Milan threw a spectacle in their first home Serie A game of the season on Sunday night. Stefano Pioli’s side brushed Cagliari aside with a comprehensive 4-1 triumph to maintain their perfect start to the season.
After a narrow 1-0 win away to Sampdoria on the opening weekend, many brought Milan’s scoring prowess without Zlatan Ibrahimovic into question. However, the Rossoneri silenced their critics in emphatic fashion in their inaugural top-flight fixture at the San Siro in 2021/22, putting four past Cagliari in the first half of play.
Milan waited for Sandro Tonali to find his feet for a season, and the 21-year-old repaid the club’s patience with a sublime free-kick to open the scoring 12 minutes into the match. Although Cagliari responded almost instantly through Alessandro Deiola, the visitors’ celebration was short-lived.
Rafael Leao restored Milan’s lead in the 17th minute before Olivier Giroud stole the spotlight. In his first outing at the San Siro, the 34-year-old striker notched up a quick-fire brace to become the first Rossoneri player to achieve such a feat in his home league debut since Mario Balotelli.
Giroud first hammered the ball past Boris Radunovic with a top-class first-time effort before converting a spot-kick on the stroke of half-time to put clear daylight between the sides. Milan removed their foot off the gas in the second half, although they did have several decent opportunities to extend the lead.
Last season’s runners-up left a compelling overall impression as they looked unfazed by the departures of Gianluigi Donnarumma and Hakan Calhanoglu. Giroud barely put his foot wrong throughout the 90 minutes and was reluctant to hide his excitement about an eye-catching San Siro debut in the aftermaths.
“I am very proud to play for Milan, playing at San Siro is a great emotion. I am very happy about the game, we played our football with plenty of chances. The fans were fantastic. I knew there was something strange about Milan’s number nine but I’m not superstitious. I grew up watching Papin, Van Basten and Inzaghi,” he said as relayed by TUTTOmercatoWEB.