Manuel Locatelli with the aid of a huge deflection allowed Juventus to beat his former club, as Milan were down to 10 men for Malick Thiaw’s red card.
Both sides had numerous absentees, as Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez were suspended, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Marco Sportiello, Samuel Chukwueze, Ismael Bennacer, Mattia Caldara and Davide Bartesaghi injured, while Rade Krunic and Pierre Kalulu returned to the bench after long lay-offs. It meant they had to field third-choice goalkeeper Antonio Mirante in his first start since 2021. The Bianconeri missed Danilo, Alex Sandro and Mattia De Sciglio, with long-term bans for Nicolò Fagioli and Paul Pogba, while Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa were not fit enough to start.
Rafael Leao sprinted away on the counter to set up Olivier Giroud, whose angled drive was pushed just round the far post by an extraordinary low Wojciech Szczesny fingertip save.
Filip Kostic flashed a powerful effort just wide, as did Adrien Rabiot, but the game changed when Milan went down to 10 men.
Moise Kean was running on goal when brought down by a blatant Malick Thiaw rugby tackle and although they were well outside the penalty area, it was still considered a clear scoring opportunity worthy of a straight red card.
Stefano Pioli had to cover the defence, so hauled off Pulisic for the return of Pierre Kalulu.
Kean looked like he simply had to score soon after with a Rabiot cross to the back post, but he somehow managed to prod it wide from point-blank range.
Daniele Rugani charged down a Leao effort in the box and 10-man Milan started the second half more aggressively, so Juve threw on Dusan Vlahovic.
Juve took the lead somewhat against the run of play with a stroke of good fortune, because the long-range Manuel Locatelli strike took a huge deflection off Rade Krunic to completely wrong-foot Mirante. It was the first Bianconeri shot on target and came from a former Milan player.
Mirante made his first save at the 85th minute, flying to palm a Vlahovic strike over the bar. The 40-year-old, who had not started in Serie A since 2021, made a remarkable double save in stoppages on Andrea Cambiaso’s long-range effort and the Vlahovic follow-up.
Despite leading, Max Allegri was furious, to the degree that he took off his shirt and tie in a rage.
Milan 0-1 Juventus
Locatelli 63 (J)
Sent off: Thiaw 40 (M)
Player statistic
| Malick Thiaw |  |
40' |
| 52' |  |
Timothy Weah | ||
| Tijjani Reijnders | |
61' | ||
| 64' |  |
Manuel Locatelli (Assist: Timothy Weah) | ||
| 67' | |
Weston McKennie | ||
| 71' | |
Federico Gatti | ||
| 72' | |
Manuel Locatelli |
Match statistic
