Kolo Muani's late header rescues a draw for Juventus at Cagliari

Cagliari went ahead with the only shot on target it needed in the entire first half and held onto that 1-0 lead until the 80th minute. But at the Unipol Domus, Juventus fired off 22 shots in total and eventually found its reward just as the point seemed to be slipping away: Randal Kolo Muani rose to head home the final 1-1 in a Serie A match that left far more credit with the visiting side than the final score suggests.

The opening goal came almost out of nowhere. It was the 19th minute when Daniel Maldini finished with his left foot from the center of the box, set up by Paul Mendy on a quick counterattack that caught the Juventus defense out of position. Up to that point, the match had already shown the pattern that would repeat itself over the full 90 minutes: Juventus with the ball, piling up chances (Douglas Luiz, Pape Matar Sarr and Francisco Conceicao had already tested Elia Caprile), and Cagliari waiting for its moment to strike on the break.

The script didn't change after halftime. Edon Zhegrova, who had come on at the break, turned into a constant nightmare down the left: he kept trying without luck, sending several shots into the goalkeeper's hands or over the bar. Cagliari defended for dear life, with Yerry Mina and company throwing themselves into block after block, until the equalizer arrived in the 80th minute: a cross into the box from Kerim Alajbegovic and a close-range header from Kolo Muani made it 1-1. The French forward even had a chance to complete the comeback when, four minutes later, he rattled the crossbar off another Alajbegovic cross, but the score stayed level the rest of the way.

Dominance that wasn't enough to win

The match stats tell a story of a siege with a bittersweet ending for Juventus. Luciano Spalletti's side controlled 71.6 percent of possession and outshot Cagliari by more than five to one.

The gap also shows up in expected goals calculated after the fact based on shot location: Juventus generated an xG of 2.401 to Cagliari's mere 0.795. It's our own estimate, and it confirms what played out on the field: Fabio Pisacane's team scored with practically its only clear chance and then survived wave after wave of pressure until it could no longer hold the lead.

The result also runs somewhat counter to what we projected before kickoff. In our preview we gave Juventus a 50 percent chance of winning, a 30 percent chance of a draw and just 20 percent to Cagliari, with expected goals of 0.83 for the home side and 1.46 for the visitors. The draw is how it ended, but not the way those numbers suggested: Cagliari came closer to taking all three points than those figures indicated, backed by an efficiency that stood in sharp contrast to Juventus's fruitless insistence for much of the second half.

What the point means in the standings

The draw leaves Cagliari in fourth place with 13 points, the product of four wins, one draw and one loss so far this season. Juventus sits sixth with 11 points after three wins, two draws and one loss, just two points behind today's opponent. Neither side managed to claim all three points, but the split leaves a better taste at the Unipol Domus than on the visitors' bench, where the sense of a missed opportunity will weigh heavier than the point earned.