AC Milan will kick off their summer friendly campaign with a trip across the border into Austria to face Rapid Wien at the Allianz Stadion.
There is an added bit of intrigue that surrounds this particular preseason curtain-raiser compared to previous years, when it would normally be a lower-league team who played at Milanello against what were normally mixed strength Milan teams, to put it kindly.
This time, it will be the first opportunity to see Paulo Fonseca’s Milan in action. Granted it is far from a competitive game, but there should still be some tangible signs of what he has been doing on the training ground in his first couple of weeks.
Date and time
The first of the friendlies that Milan will play this summer takes place on Saturday 20th at 17:30pm CEST at the Allianz Stadion, and it will be the only one before the squad leave for the American tour.
It is in the United States that the level will be raised, because the Soccer Champions Tour will put the Rossoneri against Manchester City, Real Madrid and Barcelona, in New York, Chicago and Baltimore respectively.
For some context on the opponent, Rapid finished fourth in the Austrian Bundesliga last season with 11 wins, 12 draws and nine defeats in their 32 games. They have won the most Austrian league titles with 32, and their home stadium holds over 28,000.
