Friday night saw a big game in the Italian Serie A as two of the league’s giants faced off in what turned out to be a very hard-fought battle from both sides. It was, of course, the latest duel between Juventus and AC Milan. Heading into the game AC find themselves on the end of a very tightly packed top half of the league in Serie A. There are no prizes for guessing where in the league Juventus are. The Old Lady find themselves at the top of the Serie A, ahead of Roma by a reasonable margin as they look on track to earn yet another consecutive league title.
Juventus started the stronger of the two sides as Marko Pjaca and Dybala was quick to test AC’s young goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma. Donnarumma started the game well and continued to play very well throughout the game, however, Juventus found a way through as they took the lead through Medhi Benatia at the 30-minute mark. However, the Turin side’s lead was fairly short lived as AC Milan equalized when Gerard Deulofeu launched a swift counter attack as Carlos Bacca latched onto the Spanish attacker’s pass to finish past Buffon and tie the game at 1 goal a piece.
The second half saw a better display from the Rossoneri but ultimately the quality in the Juventus side was too much for them as Sami Khedira, Miralem Pjanic and Pjaca were running the show for Juve and continually testing 18 year old Donnarumma. But the young keeper was standing his ground and proving himself to be one of Italy’s bright sparks for the future as he seemed to be fairly comfortable in keeping the stars of Juventus out.
Drama broke out towards the end of the game as Milan’s Sosa saw red for a second bookable offence following a poor tackle on Kwadwo Asamoah in the 93rd minute. A totally unnecessary late red card. Moments later it looked as if Gonzalo Higuain had won it for Juve as his spectacular bicycle kick effort flew only inches wide of the Milan goal. A matter of seconds later Higuain had another sight of goal only to see this tipped away by Donnarumma.
Just as it appeared that AC Milan had done enough to earn a point in Turin, extremely late on in the 97th minute AC right back De Sciglio was called up for a handball in the area and so giving Juventus the chance to seize the victory in the final seconds of the game. Dybala was able to convert the penalty, keeping his nerve to slot the ball past the unfortunate Donnarumma and so in the process earning Juve all three points.
Juventus deserved the victory as they had dominated most of the tie but to come to Turin and come so close to earning at least a point is rare at the moment and so AC Milan can consider themselves awfully unlucky. Although if there’s a positive to take from the game for both AC Milan fans and Italian football fans in general it’s the performance of Gianluigi Donnarumma. At one end of the field you’ve got the present and unfortunately inevitably to soon be the past of Italian goalkeeping in Buffon but at the other side of the field at only 18 years of age Donnarumma is definitely the future. At only 18 years of age he’s showing an attitude and ability rarely seen by young players at this level of soccer. Without a doubt a player to watch out for in the future.
