AC Milan beat Venezia 2-0 at San Siro on Friday evening, with both goals arriving in the final twenty-five minutes — one from a substitute's assist, the other from an opponent's misfortune — in a match shaped as much by the visitors' accumulating yellow cards as by the hosts' attacking intent.
The scoreline remained goalless until the 69th minute, when AC Milan forward Gonçalo Ramos converted an opportunity created by Alexis Saelemaekers, himself on the pitch for only ten minutes after replacing Ruben Loftus-Cheek. That the opener came so directly from a substitution is worth noting: Ramos had been on the field throughout, but it was the introduction of Saelemaekers at the hour mark that unlocked the combination. Milan coach Ruben Amorim had made a double change at the 59th minute — Adrien Rabiot came on for Alphadjo Cissè — and within ten minutes the deadlock was broken. The second goal, in the 89th minute, required no such craft: Venezia midfielder Redouane Halhal turned the ball into his own net, sealing a 2-0 result that was, by that point, a fair reflection of the evening.
Ramos was the decisive individual. The striker had occupied Venezia's defence across the full ninety minutes, and when Saelemaekers provided the assist, Ramos was in position to finish. The goal that produced the final margin was his, and it came at a moment when Venezia were already depleted by their own disciplinary record — three yellow cards across the match, with Ridgeciano Haps having been booked in the 54th minute and then substituted off in the 66th minute. That sequence compressed Stroppa's options precisely when Milan were pressing for the breakthrough.
Venezia's evening was defined by that card count. Joel Schingtienne was booked as early as the 27th minute, Kike Pérez followed in the 48th, and Haps in the 54th. Three yellows in the first hour, spread across the back line and midfield, meant Giovanni Stroppa was managing personnel as much as tactics from the interval onwards. Halhal, introduced at half-time for Bartol Franjić, ended the match as the unwilling author of the second goal. Venezia had also lost 0-2 at home to Lecce in their previous Serie A fixture, and the pattern across their two league matches — six goals conceded, none scored — points to structural problems at both ends that one Coppa Italia win against Modena does little to obscure.
Milan arrive at this result with two wins from two Serie A matches, having also beaten Torino away on the opening weekend. Their form across those two league games reads six points from six, four goals scored and one conceded — a clean sheet here complementing a solid defensive record from Turin. Venezia, with three points from three matches across all competitions and two Serie A defeats already banked, carry a form trajectory that offers Stroppa little comfort heading into the next fixture.
A month from now, this match will be remembered as the evening Amorim's substitutions did what ninety minutes of open play could not.