Some guy who used to coach Juventus came back with his new team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I don\u2019t mean to sound flip, but the biggest storyline going into Sunday night\u2019s game against AC Milan was clearly the return of Massimiliano Allegri to the Allianz Stadium for the first time as an opponent since October of 2013. Allegri brought his new charges into Turin looking for their sixth straight win, while Juve were trying to avoid their fifth straight draw in all competitions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
With Allegri and Igor Tudor leading the teams, one could expect a pragmatic game, and a pragmatic game we got. While each team had a few chances \u2014 most notably a penalty early in the second half that Cristian Pulisic missed \u2014 they were infrequent enough to make the goalless draw a slog.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tudor was still without Bremer, as well as Fabio Miretti, Juan Cabal, and Arkadiusz Milik, while Kh\u00e9phren Thuram was back in the squad after missing Wednesday\u2019s draw with Villarreal but only fit enough for the bench. His 3-4-2-1 was anchored by Michele Di Gregorio in goal. Federico Gatti, Daniele Rugani, and Lloyd Kelly made up the back three. Pierre Kalulu and Andrea Cambiaso acted as the wing-backs, bracketing Manuel Locatelli and Weston McKennie in midfield. Francisco Concei\u00e7\u00e3o and Kenan Yildiz supported Jonathan David in attack.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Allegri countered with the 3-5-2 that became his trademark at the end of his second Juve tenure. Mike Maignan started in goal, screened by Matteo Gabbia, Strahinja Pavolvic, and Fikayo Tomori. Alexis Saelemaekers and Davide Bartesaghi played on the wings, around the trio of Luka Modric, Youssouf Fofana, and another returnee, Adrien Rabiot. Santi Gim\u00e9nez and Pulisic started up top.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Juve came out of the gate quickly, and David tried to nod down an early cross to McKennie, who wasn\u2019t quite able to set himself up for the shot. After that early warning, however, the game bogged down into a highly cagey affair. Neither team set out to take many risks, instead getting back quickly when possession was lost to get into formation. Milan\u2019s first real chance came at the 20-minute mark, when Pulisic jumped Concei\u00e7\u00e3o and charged solo into the box, but at the critical moment he lost his footing and fell on his face in the left channel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Portuguese almost made up for his error right away, jinking his way into the box and sent it square into the box, where McKennie was waiting for it, only to have Saelemaekers steal in at the last second to prevent what very well might\u2019ve been the opener.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Concei\u00e7\u00e3o continued to make himself dangerous, sending a cross into the box that McKennie managed to flick on into an inviting area but David couldn\u2019t react. At the half-hour mark, Gimenez got himself in on the action for the first time, cutting inside of seemingly every defender on the pitch before firing his shot right at Di Gregorio. A few minutes later Locatelli hit Kalulu with a beautiful through ball, but when the Frenchman\u2019s pullback got to David he suffered the same fate as Pulisic did and completely lost his footing before he could even shoot, foiling a wonderful chance to score.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Gimenez headed wide across the goal just before the halftime whistle, while Kalulu fired wide off a blocked shot rebound. When the teams headed into the locker room, it seemed like it was going to take one moment for either team to break through and take the three points with them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n That moment almost came immediately for Juventus. A short corner saw a cross that fell to the waiting Gatti, who slammed the ball goalwards from point blank range \u2014 only to somehow by saved by Maignan, Milan, though, got the biggest chance of the entire match when Jimenez was nudged to the ground going after a through ball, prompting referee Marco Guiada to point to the spot. Luckily, Pulisic stepped up and got fancy, going for the upper 90 and blazed it over the bar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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