Motta‘s Juventus beat Torino 2-0. The Old Lady took advantage of AC Milan’s draw to return to the podium.
Juventus returned to the podium, AC Milan fell from its cloud: two of the contenders for the title of Italian champion experienced a contrasting Saturday with a controlled victory for Juve against Torino (2-0) and a worrying draw for Milan in Cagliari (3-3). As is often the case between the two teams, the 209th edition of the Turin derby did not delight the spectators at the Allianz Stadium, but Tiago Motta easily put up with it.
His Juve have still not lost in the league, have had a second victory in a row thanks to the third goal in four matches from Timothy Weah and a new gem from Kenan Yildiz. “These are two players who have progressed a lot, but they can still do much better, they have all the qualities to do so,” assured Motta on the DAZN platform. “We delivered a great team performance this (Saturday) evening, we need to be able to play like that more often,” he added. His Bianconeri have regained their place on the podium and are putting pressure on Inter Milan (2nd with 24 points too) who host leader Naples (25 pts) on Sunday. But three teams in great form, Atalanta Bergamo, Fiorentina and Lazio Rome, all on 22 points, can knock Juve off the podium. This podium has moved further away for AC Milan who remain stuck in 7th place with seven points behind the lead and six less than Juve.
Milan will not have remained on its clouds for long: four days after its demonstration against Real Madrid (3-1) in the Champions League at the Bernabeu, the Lombard club lost two new points at the poorly ranked Cagliari. Silent since August 30, Rafael Leao nevertheless scored a double but that was not enough for the Rossoneri who had a very bad day in Sardinia. “Our problem today was our defense, we lacked aggression, we let them cross too much, we lost too many aerial duels, it’s not possible to win a match in these conditions,” said Milan coach Paulo Fonseca.
“This draw is clearly a step backwards,” regretted the Portuguese technician. His players conceded a first goal after only 63 seconds of play when Nadir Zortea, left alone by the Lombard defense, deceived Maignan from afar. Leao, who had lost his starting status in October, woke up his team by lobbing the opposing goalkeeper on a superb opening from Tijjani Reijnders (15th). The Portuguese, launched by Youssouf Fofana, doubled the lead by resisting two defenders (40th).
Cagliari, which remained on three defeats in a row, called on Mike Maignan several times before equalizing through Gabriele Zappa who took advantage of a poor restart from Fofana (53rd). Milan thought they had definitively regained the advantage thanks to Tammy Abraham, perfectly placed to take the ball released by the Sardinian goalkeeper after a shot from Christian Pulisic (69th). But Zappa equalized again in the 89th minute. The meeting allowed the prodigy Francesco Camarda to make history a little more: taking advantage of the absence of Alvaro Morata, he was started for the first time in Serie A at 16 years and 244 days, a record for precocity for a Milan outfield player.
