Milan at least had some scoring opportunities, but it was a disappointing stalemate at San Siro with a toothless Juventus, a point each that pleases neither side.
This was a huge showdown for the top four as well as one of the classics of Italian football. Alessio Romagnoli and Davide Calabria returned to the start after COVID, with Fikayo Tomori, Simon Kjaer and Pietro Pellegri injured, Franck Kessie and Fode Ballo-Toure at AFCON, but Ismael Bennacer was back on the bench after Algeria’s early elimination. Juve missed Leonardo Bonucci and Federico Chiesa, while Matthijs de Ligt was only fit for the bench after a stomach bug.
Tension was still high for the Rossoneri after their controversial home defeat to Spezia, in which the referee had to apologise for a howler that couldn’t be corrected by VAR.
Alex Sandro got away with a very risky and clumsy challenge on Davide Calabria, while Wojciech Szczesny parried the Rafael Leao scorcher.
There was a blow for Milan when Zlatan Ibrahimovic limped off just 28 minutes in, making way for Olivier Giroud.
Liveblog: Serie A Wk23 inc Napoli-Salernitana, Empoli-Roma, Milan-Juventus
Davide Calabria unleashed a screamer from distance with his left foot that was just past the far top corner. Moments later, he hit a similar strike with the right boot and that skimmed the woodwork too.
Alvaro Morata nodded a Mattia De Sciglio cross wide, while Leao fired straight at Szczesny and Giroud bizarrely tried to nod it backwards rather than go for goal when he had nobody in support.
Messias risked trouble with a clumsy challenge on Morata in the box, while Theo Hernandez surged forward to test Szczesny and the goalkeeper plucked a Giroud header out from under the bar.
Weston McKennie nodded an Alex Sandro cross wide, as Juventus didn’t manage a single shot on target.
Milan 0-0 Juventus
At least Milan tried winning, not sure what Juve’s agenda was, sit deep for 90 minutes and hope for the best?
The turf in San Siro is not suited for football anymore.
@Viktor.
Tried winning? Milan didn’t play football
@Jacob
What utter nonsense. Football is an all weather game. Silly excuses.
0 shots on target for Juve! Need to offload some deadwood and get a new striker in.
Fair result, neither team played convincingly! Obviously the writer of this article sympathizes with Milan but I didn’t see any good chances for either team! Alex Sandro and Bernardeschi are horrible sloths that need to go away.
Two pretty poor teams who are still fighting it our for the league, somehow. Shows how poor Serie A has become when these players are considered among the elite.
@FERBAN 2 teams fighting it out for the league? Looking at the table I see only 1 from this game. And it’s not the Zebra.
McKennie is growing om me but Bentancur is just awful. Always the worst player out there.
Until Juve dirigenti start being serious, this mediocrity will continue. Stop crying poor and get on with it.
@rosario
Dude if Milan didn’t play football what in earth did Juve? They played uglier football and gnarlier than I have seen a team do in years
@Viktor.
Milan only played until Giroud came on. Once he was on the pitch, Milan’s midfield became redundant.
@ Azmi.
Yes, 2, obviously. Have you never seen a 7 point lead overturned in a half a season before? Iver seen it happen in the space of 2 weeks.
Juve will struggle to catch Inter now, but they are certainly capable of catching Milan.