Milan and Juve disappoint in a boring stalemate

As long as Milan and Juventus continue to play like this, Inter Milan shouldn’t be worried about winning Serie A.

It looks like ages now, but a few years ago, Juventus was a consecutive Italian champion, while Milan was a European champion during his prime.

But in recent years, these two Italian giants are playing second fiddle to Inter and it will surely continue.

While Nerazzurri are preparing for a title celebration next week, Milan and Juventus fought tonight for other causes, mainly the Champions League place.

And since the stakes were high, both teams mainly played not to lose which produced a terribly boring and weak derby which ended with a worst possible result – 0:0.

Milan have lost three of their last five matches, slipping from a title push into a tense fight to secure a top-three finish under Massimiliano Allegri, while the guests arrived at San Siro with a three-game winning streak (Genoa, Atalanta, and Bologna) and, more generally, undefeated since February 21.

Juve has a host of teams chasing that fourth spot which they occupy and both Como and Roma won this week, so the pressure was on team from Turin.

In the end, both teams took one point in a match which had only one good, and a couple of half-chances for 90 minutes. If anyone wants to know why the Italian league is in a result/perfomances crisis in recent years, they should only watch this game.

It took both teams for over 20 minutes to create a first chance and it was Milan.

Fofana broke away down from the right and soon came to the penalty area. While his teammates looked for a final pass, the Frenchman decided to take a shot, but it went over the bar.

After that, it was a flat game again, with Milan being more creative in attack. The next big chance was for the hosts again in the 35th minute. Rabiot made a nice central run following a pass from Pavlovic.

He fired a powerful left-footed shot but the ball went straight at Di Gregorio. In the next attack Juve scored but, luckily for the hosts, it was offside.

Conceicao came from the right and looked like he wanted to shoot at the goal, but Thuram was there at the back post and scored. But after a replay, the goal was nullified.

Conceicao was in the middle of Juve chance minutes later, but Maignan was there to save it.

A prostitution scandal in Serie A

A quick counter attack from Milan saw Rabio, Leao and Saelemaekers in action, but the latter managed only to hit the bar. It was a good start of the second half for the hosts, who looked more and more dangerous.

But, nothing came out of their agility and the game soon turned into a flat event, with more injuries than action.

Koopmeiners came for Juventus 20 minutes from time and in short period of time tested Maignan twice, but both times it was easy for the French keeper.

SERIE A - MATCHDAY 34

Friday

Napoli - Cremonese 4-0 (3-0)

/McTominay 3, Terracciano 45 og, De Bruyne 45+3, Santos 52/

Saturday

Parma - Pisa 1-0 (0-0)

/Elphege 82/

Bologna - Roma 0-2 (0-2)

/Malen 7, El Aynaoui 45+1/

Verona - Lecce 0-0

Sunday

Fiorentina - Sasuolo 0-0

Genoa - Como 0-2 (0-1)

/Douvikas 10, Diao 68

Torino - Inter 2-2 (0-1)

/Simeone 70, Vlasic 79(p) - Thuram 23, Bisseck 61/

Milan - Juventus (0-0)

Monday

19.30: (4.95) Cagliari (3.50) Atalanta (1.85)

21.45: (2.05) Lazio (3.40) Udinese (4.10)

***odds are subject to change***