Juventus 1 – AC Milan 0: Initial reaction and random observations

A big, big win at San Siro sees Juventus suddenly within reach of the two Milan clubs atop the Serie A table.

• By
  
  Danny Penza
  
• on October 22, 2023 11:40 pm

Five minutes before halftime Sunday night, Juventus were handed a lifeline. In a first half where Milan saw more and more of the ball as time went on, things suddenly changed when Malick Thiaw pulled down Moise Kean and saw a straight red for it just a few seconds later, leaving the home side suddenly down a man for the next 50 or so minutes.

So it begged the question: “What are you gonna do with it, Juve?”

Not a whole heck of a lot, but enough to get the only goal of the night and hang on from there.

For the second straight time out of an international break this season, Juventus got a big-time result in a big-time test. That one was a dismantling of one of their former managers at the Allianz Stadium, this time around was an absolute grinder of a 1-0 win over AC Milan in front of a sellout crowd at San Siro. The guy who decided it on the scoreboard? It just so happened to be former Milan midfielder Manuel Locatelli, whose long-range shot benefited from a big deflection on what proved to be Juve’s first shot of the night and past 40-year-old keeper Antonio Mirante to put Juve ahead with just under half an hour to go.

Locatelli is no stranger to scoring long-range efforts in this rivalry game, although it came on the other side of things back when he was a teenager.

On that night on Oct. 22, 2016, Locatelli beat Gigi Buffon.

On this night on Oct. 22, 2023, exactly seven years later, he beat the guy who used to be Buffon’s backup and was otherwise pretty impressive in his first appearance in over two years.

For Juventus, though, this was obviously a game that had Lady Luck on their side, whether it was with the Thiaw red card or the deflection that Locatelli’s sho took that meant Mirante had absolutely no chance on it. The first one played a huge role in how Juventus were able to play after halftime — which, considering that the first half saw Milan have almost 70% of the possession, Juve seeing more of the ball was always going to be an improvement on how the first 40 or so minutes went.

But even with more of the ball in the second half, it’s not like Juve had created a ton. Locatelli’s goal, in the 63rd minute, was Juventus’ first shot on target the entire night. Even with a man advantage, Juve only put four shots on frame the entirety of the second half — and two of those came on the double save that Mirante made as the Bianconeri tried to double their lead.

Would a bigger lead would have been nice with the man advantage? Of course, but thankfully Juventus looked pretty solid once they got the lead. That is…