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• Americans overseas: Yunus Musah came on after the break at right-back against Lecce and was blamed for any of Lecce’s goals. Musah, who was later booked, lost Nicola Sansone on a corner, allowing the Lecce striker to score Lameck Banda’s equaliser came 4 minutes later, after Musah lost the ball while dribbling into his own half. (Milan coach Stefano Pioli said he inserted Musah at right-back because he was best suited to control Lecce’s speed. ) Juventus’ Weston McKennie played the full 90 minutes and received a yellow card in the 57th minute. American teammate Tim Weah and AC Milan’s Christian Pulisic have all been sidelined with hamstring problems.
It’s the fifth straight win for coach Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus, who lead Serie A with 29 points against early-season rivals Inter Milan with 28 against Frosinone on Sunday.
Juventus will face Inter in Turin at the end of November in what is expected to be an outdated blockbuster among the classic rivals.
“Inter are favourites to win the Scudetto, but anything can happen in a single game,” Allegri said with a smile. “Our goal is to finish in the top four. “
Juve’s tough centre-back Gleison Bremer was unmarked in the centre of the box when he returned home on the hour mark to break the deadlock.
Another defensive player, Daniele Rugani (pictured above), scored just as smoothly from a corner in the 70th minute to make it 2-0.
Alberto Dossena scored with a header in the 75th minute to snap a streak of seven blanks for Juventus, who then controlled the match.
Earlier, AC Milan had squandered a two-goal lead at Lecce but breathed a sigh of relief collectively when a wonder goal from the hosts was disallowed in a 2-2 draw.
In a more than dramatic incident, Lecce striker Roberto Piccoli controlled a long-range clearance from his goalkeeper, turned and fired past Mike Maignan to delight the home fans.
But the goal was disallowed because Piccoli had stepped on an opponent’s foot in pre-season.
Lecce president Saverio Sticchi Damiani has made no secret of his displeasure at the delayed VAR decision.
“It’s to ruin a fairy tale and ruin the sport,” he said.
Despite picking up a point, AC Milan lost the influential Rafael Leao and sent off striker Olivier Giroud.
Giroud opened the scoring in the 28th minute before Tijjani Reijnders doubled the lead, just four days after AC Milan’s Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain.
In 14th place in Serie A, Lecce looked out of position but came out in the second phase with a lot of intent, cutting a goal off a corner through Nicola Sansone in the 66th minute before Zambia’s Lameck Banda equalised shortly after.
Milan coach Stefano Pioli lamented that his players had not been taught the lesson.
“We conceded a goal from a corner that PSG scored, so we keep making the same very costly mistakes,” he said.
“We were too tense, too frantic and we didn’t win a game we had already won. “
Milan had plenty to complain about, despite the slackness, with Giroud on the verge of serving a suspension after his red card following a second yellow for dissenting as the club’s Serie A winless streak stretched to 4 games.
Currently third in the league, AC Milan are threatened on Sunday by champions Napoli, who have a chance to overtake them.
In the last match on Saturday, Monza and Turin drew 1-1. Ivan Ilic scored in the 55th minute for the visitors before Monza’s Andrea Colpani celebrated his first call-up for Italy with the equaliser.
BUR/DMC/MW
© Agence France-Presse
I think the gap in expectations between Musah in midfield and Musah in defence is attractive because it’s something we rarely communicate about here. Defensive errors in midfield rarely generate direct scoring opportunities, so we are not the precedent in defense. On the other hand, one mistake is too many. As an intermediary, occasional errors are appropriate as long as the other attributes exceed the norms. This paradigm, when applied to young people on defense, creates undue strain on children, tension and inevitable abuse, coaches shout.
* (autocomplete added “abuse”, me)
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