Milan beat Venice 2:0 at Giuseppe Meazza on Wednesday evening, taking a commanding start to their Serie A campaign. The hosts moved to the top of the table after two victories from two matches, while Venice remained rooted to the bottom with no points from their opening fixtures. By then, the pattern was clear enough: Milan controlling games, Venice struggling to find any rhythm.
The first half offered little excitement. Venice's Joel Schingtienne picked up a yellow card in the twenty-seventh minute, and there was a substitution for B. Franjic just before the break. Milan kept possession without creating much, and the visitors defended without panic. To be fair, neither side demanded much from the other in those opening forty-five minutes.
Everything shifted in the second half. The game opened up after a series of substitutions around the hour mark, with R. Loftus-Cheek and A. Cisse coming on for Milan together. And here's the thing about this game: the breakthrough came at sixty-nine minutes when G. Ramos finally converted a chance that had been building all evening. Milan led 1:0 for the first time, and the pressure mounted.
The second goal arrived late and in embarrassing fashion. R. Halhal turned the ball into his own net in the eighty-ninth minute, and that was the final nail. Strahinja Pavlović had already booked earlier, and Venice were left exposed after their defensive shape began to unravel. The own goal meant Milan had taken three points without really being threatened.
The statistics tell the story of a comfortable victory. Milan enjoyed 58 per cent possession and registered eleven shots on target against two for Venice, while their expected goals figure of 2.21 contrasted sharply with the visitors' 0.8. But the numbers don't capture how Venice survived for so long, creating only one big chance of their own across ninety minutes.
For Milan, this was a statement win. Two victories from two matches puts them top of the table with six points, building on a recent run that has included wins over Torino and Manchester United. For Venice, the pattern continues: two defeats, no points, and a long season stretching ahead. The gap between these two sides on the table is already twenty-two points.
