Some guy who used to coach Juventus came back with his new team.
I don’t mean to sound flip, but the biggest storyline going into Sunday night’s game against AC Milan was clearly the return of Massimiliano
Allegri to the Allianz Stadium for the first time as an opponent since October of 2013. Allegri brought his new charges into Turin looking for their sixth straight win, while Juve were trying to avoid their fifth straight draw in all competitions.
With Allegri and Igor Tudor leading the teams, one could expect a pragmatic game, and a pragmatic game we got. While each team had a few chances — most notably a penalty early in the second half that Cristian Pulisic missed — they were infrequent enough to make the goalless draw a slog.
Tudor was still without Bremer, as well as Fabio Miretti, Juan Cabal, and Arkadiusz Milik, while Khéphren Thuram was back in the squad after missing Wednesday’s draw with Villarreal but only fit enough for the bench. His 3-4-2-1 was anchored by Michele Di Gregorio in goal. Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani, and Lloyd Kelly made up the back three. Pierre Kalulu and Andrea Cambiaso acted as the wing-backs, bracketing Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie in midfield. Francisco Conceição and Kenan Yildiz supported Jonathan David in attack.
Allegri countered with the 3-5-2 that became his trademark at the end of his second Juve tenure. Mike Maignan started in goal, screened by Matteo Gabbia, Strahinja Pavolvic, and Fikayo Tomori. Alexis Saelemaekers and Davide Bartesaghi played on the wings, around the trio of Luka Modric, Youssouf Fofana, and another returnee, Adrien Rabiot. Santi Giménez and Pulisic started up top.
Juve came out of the gate quickly, and David tried to nod down an early cross to McKennie, who wasn’t quite able to set himself up for the shot. After that early warning, however, the game bogged down into a highly cagey affair. Neither team set out to take many risks, instead getting back quickly when possession was lost to get into formation. Milan’s first real chance came at the 20-minute mark, when Pulisic jumped Conceição and charged solo into the box, but at the critical moment he lost his footing and fell on his face in the left channel.
The Portuguese almost made up for his error right away, jinking his way into the box and sent it square into the box, where McKennie was waiting for it, only to have Saelemaekers steal in at the last second to prevent what very well might’ve been the opener.
Conceição continued to make himself dangerous, sending a cross into the box that McKennie managed to flick on into an inviting area but David couldn’t react. At the half-hour mark, Gimenez got himself in on the action for the first time, cutting inside of seemingly every defender on the pitch before firing his shot right at Di Gregorio. A few minutes later Locatelli hit Kalulu with a beautiful through ball, but when the Frenchman’s pullback got to David he suffered the same fate as Pulisic did and completely lost his footing before he could even shoot, foiling a wonderful chance to score.
Gimenez headed wide across the goal just before the halftime whistle, while Kalulu fired wide off a blocked shot rebound. When the teams headed into the locker room, it seemed like it was going to take one moment for either team to break through and take the three points with them.
That moment almost came immediately for Juventus. A short corner saw a cross that fell to the waiting Gatti, who slammed the ball goalwards from point blank range — only to somehow by saved by Maignan, Milan, though, got the biggest chance of the entire match when Jimenez was nudged to the ground going after a through ball, prompting referee Marco Guiada to point to the spot. Luckily, Pulisic stepped up and got fancy, going for the upper 90 and blazed it over the bar.
Milan started to push a little bit after the missed penalty. Fofana hit a long-range bolt right at Di Gregorio, but for the most part the two sides continued to exchange half-chances as the game wore on. Rafael Leao came on and very nearly caught Di Gregorio off his line, going for an audacious chip from just beyond the halfway line and seeing the ball drop just to the other side of the crossbar.
Juve struggled to create as the game wore on, and Tudor’s changes didn’t do much to change that. They had some fortune when Leao dragged a shot wide from a beautiful ball from Pulisic in the 73rd minute, while Loïs Openda missed the near post after McKennie led him through. Cambiaso’s long curler went right at Maignan, and as the time ticked down neither side looked to be interested in doing anything to risk leaving themselves open.
There was one last big chance in the game, and it fell to Leao, who got in between two center-backs and received a beautiful ball by Modric, only to scuff his shot and allow Di Gregorio to punch it clear. Stoppage time brought little to think a winner would be found, and indeed Guida blew his whistle with nothing having been done, splitting the points and sending everyone back home thinking they could’ve done a few things better.
A note from the editors: We’re going to be experimenting with a new format for our match recaps. Instead of using one long article, the recap will now be split in half. The first post will recount the game’s action, then the second a little bit later will have Le Pagelle and Manager Analysis. Feel free to let us know what you think of this new format!
