Juve beat Milan with late penalty
FINO ALLA fine (Until the end) is the Juventus motto and it lived up to it again as Paulo Dybala converted a penalty with the last kick of the match to beat AC Milan 2-1 and go 11 points clear in Serie A yesterday ahead of this weekend’s games.
Teen goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma appeared to have earned Milan a precious point with some fine saves but Juventus were awarded a penalty deep in stoppage time after Mattia De Sciglio was judged to have handled Stephan Lichtsteiner’s cross.
Juventus extended their Serie A record to 31 consecutive home wins.
11 POINTS CLEAR OF RIVALS
They also moved 11 points clear of second-placed Roma and 13 ahead of Napoli. Roma visit Palermo tomorrow, shortly after Napoli host Crotone.
Milan remained in seventh place, a point behind Inter Milan, which host fifth-placed Atalanta tomorrow.
Juventus took the lead on the half hour through an unlikely goal-scorer. Medhi Benatia beat the offside trap to control Dani Alves’ chipped pass and smash it past Donnarumma from close range for his first goal for the club.
Milan leveled two minutes from halftime following great work from Gerard Deulofeu, who sprinted down the left from inside his own half, cut inside, and threaded the ball through for Carlos Bacca to fire into the bottom right corner. Bacca appearaed to be slightly offside. Juventus and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was merely a spectator for most of the match and had plenty of time to admire his heir apparent.
Donnarumma turned 18 only last month but he has already played more than 60 times in Serie A and made two Italy appearances. He notably kept out a Miralem Pjanic free kick then denied Sami Khedira with the help of De Sciglio’s goal-line clearance. He also managed to deflect Pjanic’s shot onto the crossbar.
Milan midfielder Jose Sosa was sent off following a second booking in the third minute of stoppage time and Juventus upped the pressure. Gonzalo Higuain’s acrobatic effort was parried by Donnarumma but the ball was crossed back into the area and struck De Sciglio’s arm from close range.