Olivier Giroud made his AC Milan debut in a tight win over Sampdoria in Serie A’s final match of the first round of matches. A tightly-contested game was settled early on by Brahim Diaz as new-look Rossoneri looked to begin life after Hakan Calhanoglu and Gianluigi Donnarumma brightly.A good start to the new campaign 👏Buona la prima, rossoneri 👏#SampdoriaMilan #SempreMilan pic.twitter.com/WI8O6K3euE— AC Milan (@acmilan) August 23, 2021 With Zlatan Ibrahimovic still unfit to help out his team, Milan started with a forward line of Rafael Leao and Giroud. The Frenchmen has had one good chance to volley home but he chose to take a touch first and lost precious moments in which to beat the battling Sampdoria defenders.Milan looked brighter in the first half, but they fell even more and more back and relied on their defence to see them through. Their French goalkeeper Mike Maignan, a recent recruit from LOSC Lille, was called upon more than once as the team from Genoa kept knocking on the door.Friday, 21.45: (5.10) Verona (3.70) Inter (1.70)Head Coach Stefano Pioli was left sweating until the very end but was relieved as the final whistle went and his team secured the points. It wasn’t easy, pretty nor convincing, but they started their Serie A campaign with a win.Would this Milan team be able to better last season’s second-place finish, however, is a whole different discussion.SERIE A – ROUND 1SaturdayInter – Genoa 4-0 (2-0)/Skriniar 6, Calhanoglu 14, Vidal 74, Dzeko 87/Verona – Sassuolo 2-3 (0-1)/Zaccagni 71, 90 – Raspadori 32, Djuricic 51, Traore 77/SundayBologna – Salernitana 3-2 (0-0)/De Silvestri 59, Arnautovic 75, De Silvestri 77 – Bonazzoli 52, Coulibaly 70/Udinese – Juventus 2-2 (0-2)/Pereyra 51 pen, Deulofeu 83 – Dybala 3, Cuadrado 23/Napoli – Venezia 2-0 (0-0)/Insigne 62 pen, Elmas 73/Roma – Fiorentina 3-1 (1-0)/Mkhitaryan 26,Veretout 64, 79 – Milenkovic 60/MondayCagliari – Spezia 2-2 (0-1)/Joao Pedro 62, 66 pen – Gyasi 7, Bastoni 58/Sampdoria – Milan 0-1 (0-1)/Diaz 9/
