Juventus snatched a point against nine-man Bologna in a chaotic finale, with Marko Arnautovic’s goal cancelled out by Dusan Vlahovic and controversy over a VAR call.
The Bianconeri could both push to close on Napoli in third place and look over their shoulders at Roma. Alvaro Morata and Mattia De Sciglio returned from suspension, but Leonardo Bonucci was still not fully fit, with Federico Chiesa, Manuel Locatelli, Arthur Melo, Weston McKennie and Kaio Jorge injured. Bologna were fresh from a draw with leaders Milan and 2-0 win over Sampdoria, but coach Sinisa Mihajlovic continued to keep track from his hospital room during leukaemia treatment.
It was a special evening for Alessandro Del Piero, as the Juventus legend was at the Allianz Stadium for the first time since 2012.
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Riccardo Orsolini failed to make the most of a defensive error and Dusan Vlahovic’s header from a Morata cross skimmed the bar before the Paulo Dybala free kick flashed wide.
Mattias Svanberg tested Wojciech Szczesny from distance and Aaron Hickey anticipated Morata on the De Sciglio cross.
Danilo hit a ferocious strike from outside the box that flashed just past the far post. Giorgio Chiellini made a decisive interception to prevent Orsolini tapping in the Mitchell Dijks low ball.
At the dawn of the second half, Arnautovic had a huge chance when he gathered Roberto Soriano’s ball with his back to goal, spun De Sciglio and drilled inches wide with Szczesny stranded.
Moments later, Juventus had their own big opportunity, a Luca Pellegrini cross sailing past both Morata and Lukasz Skorupski, until Adrien Rabiot prodded wide at the back post.
It was Bologna who took the lead when Soriano’s through ball surprised Matthijs de Ligt, Arnautovic took a touch to take it around Szczesny and deposit into the net from a tight angle. The Austria international scored each of Bologna’s last six Serie A goals.
De Sciglio’s long-range effort took a wicked deflection, fingertipped over the bar, and on the resulting corner Danilo’s header was kept out only by the inside of the far post.
De Ligt’s header was beaten away by Skorupski, but the Dutch defender sustained an injury during that move and had to come off.
Arnautovic also hurt his back and was replaced, Juve finally created a genuine chance to unleash chaos in the final minutes.
Morata rode a Medel tackle and went down under the Adama Soumaoro challenge, play continued and Juan Cuadrado hit the frame of the open goal. After a VAR review, the referee saw Soumaoro didn’t connect with the ball, but caught Morata just outside the box, leading to a red card and no penalty. This infuriated Medel so much he received two yellow cards in five seconds for dissent.
After all of that, Vlahovic fired the free kick over the bar. Leonardo Bonucci also drilled wide as Juventus poured forward in waves against nine men.
It paid off, as on a corner Morata’s acrobatic bicycle-kick was going wide until Vlahovic nodded in at the back post from a yard.
Juventus 1-1 Bologna
Arnautovic 52 (B), Vlahovic 95 (J)
Sent off: Soumaoro 84 (B), Medel 84 (B)