Gatti bails out Juventus with stoppage-time header against a Milan side that shocked Turin

Federico Gatti showed up in the 91st minute to net the 1-1 at the Allianz Stadium, right as Milan was already smelling all three points. Juventus dominated for almost the entire match and created chance after chance, but ran into a goal from Alphadjo Cissè that nearly left the home side empty handed. In the end, a header in stoppage time spared Juventus what would have been a defeat hard to justify given how lopsided the shot count was.

The match, part of Serie A, followed an odd script: Juventus spent the first half crashing into Mile Svilar (or whoever was minding the net for the visitors) without finding a reward. Francisco Conceição was the most persistent, testing his luck several times and striking the post in the 54th minute off a counterattack. Earlier, in the first half, he had already given a warning with a shot that was saved right next to the far post. The home side also fired shots from outside the box through Douglas Luiz, Manuel Locatelli and Nico González, but the score remained level at halftime.

Milan's blow and the response in extra time

The visitors, who had barely threatened the opposing box, found their reward with their first real chance of danger in the second half. In the 67th minute, Alphadjo Cissè, who had just come on, struck a right footed shot from inside the box to make it 0-1, assisted by Samuel Chukwueze, another recent substitute. It was a blow that came almost out of nowhere: Milan had hardly troubled Juventus and suddenly found itself ahead on the scoreboard.

Juventus kept pushing. Randal Kolo Muani tried a header, Jérémie Boga forced another save out of the visiting goalkeeper and Manuel Locatelli had another attempt that went just wide. The reward came in stoppage time: in the 91st minute, off a free kick taken by Teun Koopmeiners that was crossed into the box, Federico Gatti headed home through the middle of the goal for the final 1-1. The goal came just minutes after Gatti himself had entered the match as a substitute.

Numbers that reflect the dominance

The match stats confirm that Juventus was far more incisive, even though the result didn't fully reward it:

The xG generated in the match, calculated after the fact based on the shots taken, also backs up that superiority: 1.704 for Juventus against just 0.125 for Milan. In other words, with a single shot on target and barely creating any danger, Milan found the goal that nearly won it the match, while Juventus piled up chances without converting them into the result until the very end.

The preview had projected a fairly even match, with a 44% probability for Juventus, 30% for a draw and 26% for Milan, along with expected goals of 1.37 for the home side and 1 for the visitors. The final result, a draw, ended up matching that tight-match scenario, though the road to get there was far more nerve wracking than those numbers suggested: Juventus had to come from behind in stoppage time after trailing to a rival that barely set foot in its own box.

What the standings show

With this result, both teams sit on 7 points after 3 matches played, each with a record of 2 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses. Juventus sits in fifth place and Milan in fourth, separated only by goal difference, in a table where Roma and Inter remain the only teams with a perfect record. The draw doesn't change much at the top, but it does leave the feeling that Juventus deserved a good deal more than what it walked away with.