The Old Lady had always beaten Milan at the Allianz Stadium before tonight. Five times in five games, a perfect record.
However, Juventus have already learned this season that what happened in the past counts for little.
“Milan did nothing extraordinary, Juventus had no ideas at all, Gigio Donnarumma only had one save to make,” Fabio Capello told Sky Sport after the final whistle. That sums it all up.
The Old Lady had always beaten Milan at the Allianz Stadium before tonight. Five times in five games, a perfect record.
However, Juventus have already learned this season that what happened in the past counts for little.
“Milan did nothing extraordinary, Juventus had no ideas at all, Gigio Donnarumma only had one save to make,” Fabio Capello told Sky Sport after the final whistle. That sums it all up.
Not surprisingly, Juventus lost the game in midfield, where Franck Kessié and Ismael Bennacer dominated Adrien Rabiot and Rodrigo Bentancur.
The latter was used as a deep-lying playmaker, which is not suitable for him as he has already proved several times this season.
His mistake against Porto is the most notable of the campaign, but many examples prove the Uruguay international is not a regista, and it’s surprising to notice Andrea Pirlo hasn’t seen it yet.
Weston McKennie was also highly disappointing, as he’s been for the last couple of months, ironically enough, ever since the Old Lady decided to make his move from Schalke 04 permanent.
Theo Hernandez was always a threat on the left, and the American midfielder did nothing to stop the Frenchman, who created two clear goal-scoring opportunities in the first half.
It was a Brahim Diaz goal that gave the Rossoneri the lead just before the half time whistle. This time around, it was Wojciech Szczęsny who was responsible as the former Arsenal man didn’t punch a free kick far enough away and was then too slow to return between the sticks.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata went missing. They hardly stepped inside the Rossoneri’s box and were never supported by McKennie himself.
It’s fair to say Juventus hit their lowest point in more than a decade, but yet again, tonight’s result can’t come as a surprise after what the Bianconeri have done this season.
Once again, they proved to be a side without an identity and, differently from what happened in the last ten years, they are also mentally fragile.
If they miss out on a Champions League spot, they will face heavy consequences on a financial and a sporting level, but they still have three games to turn it around.
Milan, on the other hand, did nothing extraordinary, as Capello said. But everything they did, they did well.
Hakan Calhanoglu’s position created problems for the Bianconeri.
“If you create and then fill the spaces with the right timing, that can really make the difference,” Pioli commented at the end of the game.
That’s exactly what the Turkey star did alongside Brahim Diaz, who’d had a couple of chances before putting Milan ahead.
Ibrahimovic fought hard up front, he found a tough opponent in Matthijs de Ligt, but Giorgio Chiellini did not have his best night.
Alexis Saelemaekers played an intelligent game on the right where Alex Sandro was one of the best Juventus players on the pitch.
Still, somehow the Spaniard was able to create goal-scoring opportunities and even earned the free kick that the Rossoneri converted into Brahim’s goal.
Kessié fluffed a penalty, but Szczesny’s save seemed to boost Milan instead of Juventus, who did not react.
Overall, Milan were a team, a real team. They didn’t even get disheartened when Ibrahimovic was forced off the pitch with a knee injury in the second half.
They were 1-0 up and managed to score two more with the Swede watching the game from the sidelines.
In the stands, Exor’s CEO John Elkann was watching the game close to his cousin Andrea Agnelli and was probably wondering how the losing team is by far the one with the highest wage bill in Serie A.
Ante Rebic scored a screamer after 78 minutes and Fikayo Tomori put the final nail in Chiellini’s coffin, out-jumping the Juventus captain.
The job is still not done for Pioli’s men, who are level on 72 points with Atalanta in second place. Juventus sit fifth, three points behind the pair and Napoli are in the middle with 70 points.
However, the feeling is that the gap between Juventus and the top four is much more significant after tonight’s embarrassing defeat.