Joao Felix made a dream start to life at AC Milan on Wednesday night, scoring as a substitute in their Coppa Italia quarter-final against Roma.
The day after both clubs announced the transfer, Sergio Conceicao named his new signing on the bench at San Siro. From there, he saw Chelsea academy graduate Tammy Abraham score twice to give the hosts a commanding half-time lead.
Roma, however, halved the deficit soon after the break thanks to Artem Dovbyk, and five minutes later, the Milan head coach introduced both of his transfer deadline day signings. Felix replaced his former Blues team-mate Christian Pulisic while Abraham made way for Santiago Gimenez.
Both combined barely 10 minutes after their introduction, with the centre-forward playing the Portugal international through one-on-one. Felix took a touch to control and another to push the ball out before chipping the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper.
After scoring, Felix put his finger to his lips before recreating Stephen Curry’s “Night Night” celebration by placing his hands together and resting his head on them. He also made that same gesture after scoring against Morecambe in the FA Cup third round at Stamford Bridge.
Felix took to Instagram after the match. He uploaded a post containing several pictures from the game with an accompanying message which when translated reads: “Thank you for the warm welcome, San Siro” along with red and black hearts.
Those two goals against the League Two team were his last for Chelsea this season. However, this debut one for Milan was his first as a substitute since completing the scoring in their 6-2 win away against Wolverhampton Wanderers on his second Blues debut.
That was also his only strike in the league, with all six others coming across matches in the Conference League and FA Cup. Much like his first appearance of the season, his last also came versus Wolves in the reverse fixture, missing the Manchester City match after flying home following a family bereavement.
Felix will hope to feature again when Milan visit Empoli on Saturday, after which they travel to Rotterdam for the first leg of their Champions League knockout round play-off against Feyenoord next midweek.
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