Amorim’s Milan beat Torino 2-1 as 19-year-old Alphadjo Cissè scores on Serie A opener

Ruben Amorim’s AC Milan defeated Torino 2-1 at the Olympic stadium in Turin on Sunday in a Serie A opening-weekend match, with 19-year-old Alphadjo Cissè scoring the decisive goal.

Cissè, an attacking midfielder who signed for Milan from Verona in February, had only joined the squad this summer after completing a season-long loan at Catanzaro in Serie B; he scored six goals in 22 games there and missed the second half of the campaign with a thigh injury. Before that he had played a combined 14 minutes for Verona across three substitute appearances in the top flight, and Amorim told reporters, "I love Cissè. I love Cissè."

The teenager started at the Olympic stadium and within 75 seconds took the match’s first shot, meeting a Ruben Loftus-Cheek cross and hooking the ball into the side netting from an acute angle beyond the far post. The appearance was notable against a wider Serie A backdrop in which Football Benchmark found Italians who qualified for the under-21 category accounted for only 3.9% of minutes last season while foreign players in that age group took 8.2%: "In other words, young foreign players receive more than twice as many opportunities as their Italian counterparts."

Youth featured across the opening weekend: 21-year-old Pio Esposito was man of the match as Inter beat Monza 4-1, and Torino fielded Diego Mascardi and Alessio Cacciamani, both 19, as goalkeeper and left wing-back. Other teenagers starting included 18-year-olds Matteo Palma for Udinese and Simone Lontani for Parma, 19-year-old Mathis Mout for Monza, and Mattia Liberali, 19, who came off the bench for Como.

Milan entered the game after substantial summer investment and a managerial change, appointing Amorim and spending a club-record €74m to sign Gonçalo Ramos from Paris Saint-Germain, plus €50m on Diego Moreira from Strasbourg and €30m on Mario Gila from Lazio. Amorim has stated his objective is to win the Scudetto while accepting it may take time to bridge the gap to Inter; in pre-season Milan beat Manchester United 4-2 with Cissè among the scorers.

Ramos and Gila started against Torino, Moreira remained on the bench, and Cissè lined up to the left of Ramos in a 3-4-2-1 formation alongside returning loanees Yunus Musah and Samuel Chukwueze. Milan dominated early, claiming more than 70% of first-half possession and outshooting Torino 11 to one, but they created few clear chances in the final third apart from a Chukwueze solo run that forced a save from Mascardi.

After the interval Cissè thought he had won a penalty when his cross struck Nikola Vlasic’s arm, but the VAR booth did not call referee Luca Zufferli to review the incident; the new refereeing designator Daniele Orsato has said he wants to "put referees back at the centre of the match" and return to the idea that technology should only be used for those elusive "clear and obvious" mistakes. In the 64th minute Musah turned in midfield, fed substitute Adrien Rabiot, who crossed to Cissè; the teenager brought the ball down with his waist and curled a half-volley into the far corner, celebrated on his knees, and moments later Rabiot converted a Chukwueze delivery to make it 2-0. Torino’s Ché Adams pulled one back with a late right-foot volley, but Milan secured the three points.

After the game Cissè laughed when asked about Amorim’s earlier declaration: "It makes me happy," he said. "But I didn't hear the press conference. All my friends told me about it instead." He added he had been recovering from injury when he first joined Milan this summer, had tried to watch training closely to learn what the manager wanted, and called starting and scoring in the opener "beyond a dream." He is the youngest Italian to score for Milan since Patrick Cutrone in 2017 and the first Italian to score for them on a debut Serie A start since Daniel Maldini in 2021; Cutrone, now 28, was a substitute for Monza this weekend and has reached double figures for goals in a top-flight season only once, while Maldini, 24, has played for seven clubs since 2022 and begins this campaign with Cagliari. Amorim, who noted Cissè has represented Italy up to under-21 level, said the team "have a lot to improve" and added: "[But] the first thing is also win. That is the most important thing. We talk about ways of playing, but there is one goal in calcio. Vincere."

The victory earned Milan three points on the Serie A opening weekend and provided an early competitive test for Amorim’s squad selection and tactical approach.