Our first pre-season friendly of the season ended in a 1-0 win against AC Milan on Wednesday. Here’s four things we noticed at the Singapore National Stadium:
All three of the summer signings that are part of the travelling squad made their non-competitive debuts in the match. Noni Madueke is on his break, having played in the Club World Cup, but Christian Norgaard, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Martin Zubimendi are all out in Singapore and taking a full part in training.
Norgaard was the only one to start, and he set up our best chance of the first half with a lateral pass to Ethan Nwaneri on the edge of the box. But it was his interceptions and positional play that caught the eye in an impressive opening 45 minutes.
He was replaced by Zubimendi at the break, and the Spaniard showed glimpses of what we can expect from him with a neat display, linking the play smoothly from defence to attack. He confidently dispatched his penalty in the shootout as well, stepping up for the second spot kick.
As for Arrizabalaga, it was a very quiet night for his debut. Our dominance was such that he only had one save to make in regulation time, although the penalty shootout gave him a chance to shine…