Alphadjo Cissé Shines for Milan in Turin; Atalanta Doesn’t Slip Up Against Sassuolo

Milan and Atalanta won their season openers, and the reactions from Ruben Amorim and Maurizio Sarri following Sunday’s Serie A debut were inevitably very positive. In Turin, the Rossoneri prevailed 2-1, with the scoring opened by the Portuguese coach’s bold choice: Alphadjo Cissé, not yet 20 years old. Adrien Rabiot’s second goal then prevented Che Adams’ stoppage-time goal from doing too much damage. The same result came in Bergamo, where Sassuolo fell 2-1 on goals by Raspadori and Krstovic, after Odenthal had briefly tied the game.

Cissé himself posed a threat right from the start of the match, following a play initiated by Chukwueze and capped off with an assist from Loftus-Cheek. It was the former Chelsea player who set up the next chance in a match that struggled to break open, partly due to Torino’s solid defense—including a save by their very young, debutant goalkeeper Mascardi, who denied Chukwueze. The first half ended scoreless; the second half began with a ball that Simeone nearly turned into a massive scoring opportunity. After an hour of play, Amorim brought on Modric and Rabiot, and almost immediately (in the 64th minute) Cissé celebrates his first start with his first Serie A goal: his rocket shot off an assist from Rabiot was unstoppable, and two minutes later, Rabiot doubled the lead by intercepting Chukwueze’s pass with a perfect tackle. In the closing minutes, the Granata squandered every possible chance until Adams’s spectacular turn and shot in the 93rd minute. But it was too late.

In Bergamo, meanwhile, Atalanta had to put behind them the somewhat disappointing scoreless draw in the Conference League against Hapoel Tel Aviv—and they did so immediately. The Nerazzurri took the lead as early as the 6th minute, when Raspadori received a pass from Gaetano, evaded Cinquegrano’s challenge, and blasted the ball under the crossbar. Zalewski missed a chance to double the lead, and the Nerazzurri limited themselves to controlling the game—or little more—until halftime. The equalizer came in the 55th minute, when Odenthal capitalized on a pass from Doig and a lapse by Kossounou to tie the game. It lasted barely 10 minutes: Sarri simultaneously sent De Ketelaere, Samardzic, and Krstovic into the fray, and in the 65th minute, the Montenegrin power his way past Macchioni to score the game-winning goal.

Cissé’s story is that of a gamble that paid off over time. Born in Treviso and raised as a soccer player in Castelfranco Veneto with Giorgione, the 2006-born player had already gotten a taste of Serie A with Verona between 2024 and 2025, though he logged fewer than 20 total minutes across three appearances. His real breakthrough came last season at Catanzaro, where he carved out a leading role in the team’s run to the Serie B playoffs. Signed by Milan back in January, a serious adductor injury had derailed his progress, but his recovery over the summer put him in Amorim’s hands at just the right time. The friendly against Manchester United was decisive in this regard, as Cissé scored the goal that tied the game at 2-2: “He’ll make life difficult for Rafa Leao,” the Portuguese coach commented immediately after the match. It’s no coincidence that, in recent weeks, Torino had also tried to pry him away from the Rossoneri on loan, including him as a possible trade piece in a broader deal involving the young Granata winger Alessio Cacciamani. Amorim, however, decided to keep him, and the league opener has already proven him right.

On the transfer front, meanwhile, Milan has yet to resolve the Rafael Leao situation. The Portuguese player, publicly demoted by Amorim himself on the eve of the match, is on the list of players set to leave but has not yet found a new home: the offers from Galatasaray and Al-Hilal haven’t convinced him, while no concrete proposal has come in from the Premier League. The hottest lead points to Gasperini’s Roma, with the Giallorossi ready to submit an offer for a loan with an obligation to buy. Until the situation is resolved, it is Cissé who is stepping up, at least in part, to fill the Portuguese forward’s shoes.

At Atalanta, the victory over Sassuolo doesn’t entirely dispel Sarri’s concerns; following the 0-0 draw in the Conference League, he had already spoken out about the transfer market: “We need to do something—we’re still a team under construction,” the Tuscan coach had stated. The area in most urgent need of reinforcements is the attack, where a dedicated left winger is missing: the player identified is Noa Lang, a Dutchman set to leave Napoli, with the parties reportedly closing in on a total fee of 27 million euros, though the terms of the deal still need to be finalized. Benfica and Galatasaray remain in the background; Galatasaray has already submitted a 15-million-euro offer, which the Azzurri deemed insufficient. Time is running out.

Finally, a transfer market update regarding Sassuolo’s loss in Bergamo: Andrea Pinamonti’s absence from Alberto Aquilani’s game-day roster did not go unnoticed and is a telling sign of his imminent departure. The most likely destination appears to be Gennaro Gattuso’s Lazio, which is urgently seeking a true center forward after a long summer of fruitless negotiations. The Biancocelesti have reportedly already reached an agreement with the player on a contract running through 2031, but the main obstacle remains the gap between Sassuolo’s asking price—12 million—and the ceiling set by Claudio Lotito, which stands at 2.5 million plus an 8 million buyout clause.