Christian Pulisic made a fine debut in Serie A for Milan, assisting Olivier Giroud before finding the net with a rocket, but Bologna were not lucky enough to hit the woodwork twice.
The Rossoneri were bolstered in the summer with nine new signings and three of them with a change in strategy to start at 4–3–3, but Valencia’s suspended suspension resulted in Younes Mussah, as well as Ismail Benesar is hurt. Thiago Motta had to make do without Moses Barro and Adama Soumaoro, while Riccardo Orsolini was not 100% fit. It was his first game since the sale of Marko Arnautovic to Inter.
Charalampos Lykogiannis almost gave Bologna the lead after 20 seconds when he headed the crossbar.
They survived that first scare and took the lead with two new United buys as Tijjani Rijnders blocked a Christian Pulisic cross pass from the boundary line for Olivier Giroud to fire into the second post. Incredibly, it was the first goal scored by a French player with his right foot for the Rossoneri.
Lewis Ferguson fired into the side netting from a tricky angle but Milan doubled their advantage in style. Pulisic switched back and forth with Giroud before unleashing a scorcher with the inside of the right boot from the edge of the area.
Giroud almost got a third when a volley was denied by a flying save from Lukasz Skorupski, while Mike Magnan cleared Ferguson’s effort at the near post.
Skorupsky went wild for a desperate sliding tackle on Theo Hernandez, who was dismissed by Rafael Leao, but Leao took a huge risk when he brought down Ferguson just outside the area and Stephen Pausch nodded.
Riccardo Orsolini came off the bench and had a penalty call overturned for a close-up with Fikayo Tomori, while Dan Ndoye went on goal instead of backing up for Orsolini and clipping the outside of the near post from an unexpected angle. Gave.
Michel Abischer forced a difficult save from Meganene, who used his shoulder to push the finish over the bar. With the Rossoneri clearly tiring, Pioli made four substitutions, including the debuts of Noah Okafor and Samuel Chukwueze.
Rafael Leao nearly added a third in his trademark style, turning Bucema for an angular drive that bounced inside the far post.
Bologna 0-2 Milan
Giroud 11 (M), Pulisic 21 (M)