Juventus the draw specialists, Milan the comeback kings
MILAN (AP) — Juventus is earning a reputation as draw specialists, AC Milan as the comeback kings.
Juventus was held 1-1 at Atalanta on Tuesday for its seventh draw in its past eight league matches and its 13th out of 20 Serie A games this season. It remains unbeaten in Serie A, however.
Milan fought back to win 2-1 at nearby Como.
Atalanta moved level on points with second-placed Inter Milan, which has played two matches less, and four points behind Serie A leader Napoli.
Milan was three points below fifth-placed Juventus. They face each other in Turin on Saturday and Milan is likely to be without key player Christian Pulisic after the United States international limped off on the stroke of halftime at Como.
Juventus took the lead in Bergamo in the 54th minute following great play by Weston McKennie. The United States midfielder ran onto a long ball and then played a perfectly-weighted pass for Pierre Kalulu to fire past Marco Carnesecchi at the near post.
Kalulu had come incredibly close to scoring moments earlier when his header bounced off the inside of the far post and rolled across the line before Carnesecchi managed to claw it away. Television replays showed that only a few millimeters were still on the line, with about 98% of the ball having gone over.
Mateo Retegui made his comeback in the 65th minute after several weeks out with injury and the league’s top scorer headed Atalanta level 13 minutes later with is 13th league goal of the season.
Historic Hernández goal
A historic Theo Hernández goal saw Milan earn a comeback victory for the third time in four matches under Sérgio Conceição, who got his first Serie A win as coach.
Conceição, who replaced the fired Paulo Fonseca at the end of last year, had got his reign off to the perfect start as he steered Milan to the Italian Super Cup trophy with two comeback wins after just over a week at the helm.
That was followed by a disappointing 1-1 draw against relegation-threatened Cagliari on Saturday, however.
Milan again went behind on Tuesday, when Como’s new signing Assane Diao — on the teenager’s first start — ran down the right flank and cut inside before firing into the near bottom corner.
Hernández had perhaps been at fault for backing off Diao too much but he atoned for that error with a fine equalizer in the 71st minute. It was his 30th goal in Serie A, overtaking Paolo Maldini as the Milan defender with the most goals in the Italian league.
Milan turned the match around completely five minutes later when Rafael Leão ran onto Tammy Abraham’s through ball and dinked it over Como goalkeeper Jean Butez.
Leão and Hernández are two of Milan’s key players but they have both had a difficult first half of the season as they often clashed with Fonseca.
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