MILAN (AP) — Juventus boosted its title credentials on Sunday with a 1-0 win at AC Milan, which played most of the Serie A match with 10 men.
Former Milan player Manuel Locatelli scored the only goal of the game in the 63rd minute after Rossoneri defender Malick Thiaw was sent off shortly before halftime.
Milan would have moved back to the top with a win and gone seven points clear of Juventus. Instead, the Bianconeri consolidated third place and cut the gap to one point to Milan and two points to league leader Inter Milan, which won 3-0 at Torino on Saturday.
There was a strong American presence at San Siro with four U.S. internationals in the starting lineups.
Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah at Milan were facing Juventus duo Weston McKennie and Tim Weah — the son of former Milan player George Weah.
Both teams were missing a number of players through suspension and injury, including Juventus midfielder Nicolò Fagioli, who was banned for seven months earlier this week for his part in a betting scandal.
Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan had been sent off in the Rossoneri’s extraordinary victory over Genoa before the international break and replacement Marco Sportiello was injured so third-choice goalkeeper Antonio Mirante, who is 40, made only his second appearance in three seasons.
Milan almost took the lead in the 14th minute when Rafael Leão sprinted down the left and picked out Olivier Giroud but Wojciech Szczęsny pulled off a fantastic save to push the ball away from Pulisic and across the face of goal.
However, Milan’s hopes of taking all three points diminished five minutes before halftime when Thiaw was shown a straight red card for hacking down Moise Kean and denying Juventus an obvious scoring opportunity.
That also saw the end of the match for Pulisic who was immediately taken off in favor of a defender, Pierre Kalulu.
Juventus should have broken the deadlock on the stroke of halftime but Kean fired wide from point-blank range.
The Bianconeri needed a stroke of luck to take the lead as Locatelli’s effort took a huge deflection off Milan midfielder Rade Krunić leaving Mirante completely wrongfooted.
Locatelli progressed through the ranks at Milan but left for Sassuolo in 2018, moving to Juventus three years later.
Mirante made his first save in the 85th minute, flying to palm Dušan Vlahović's attempt over the bar. He also pulled off a brilliant double save in stoppage time to deny first Andrea Cambiaso and then Vlahović again.
MOURINHO SEES RED
Stephan El Shaarawy scored in the final minute as Roma snatched a confidence-boosting 1-0 win over Monza, which had played more than half the match with 10 men.
Roma coach Jose Mourinho furiously celebrated the goal, which gave his team only its fourth league victory of the season.
However, Mourinho will not be on the bench for next weekend’s match at former club Inter Milan after he was sent off in stoppage time for making a crying eyes gesture at Monza coach Raffaele Palladino as both sets of staff bickered on the touchline.
Roma appeared to have turned things around after a miserable start to the season and had managed back-to-back league wins before the international break.
Its hopes of another increased when Monza defender Danilo D’Ambrosio was somewhat harshly shown a second yellow card four minutes from halftime and sent off.
Monza goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio made two huge saves either side of that dismissal, first pushing a point-blank Houssem Aouar header over the bar and then stopping Andrea Belotti’s effort on the line with his foot.
Roma hit the woodwork twice in the second half through Romelu Lukaku and Sardar Azmoun.
It finally broke the deadlock in somewhat chaotic circumstances as the ball bounced around the area before a rebound fell to El Shaarawy, who volleyed it in from 12 yards. It was the first goal Monza had conceded in almost a month.
INZAGHI'S BACK
Filippo Inzaghi recorded a point in his first match back coaching in Serie A as his Salernitana side snatched a 2-2 draw against Cagliari in what already looked to be a relegation battle.
Nicolas Viola appeared to have won it for Cagliari when he scored with two minutes remaining, barely two minutes after Boulaye Dia had canceled out Zito Luvumbo's 79th-minute opener.
But Viola went from hero to villain as he swatted away the ball with his hand in the area and Dia converted the resulting penalty.
Inzaghi, who was a World Cup-winning forward, last coached in the Italian top flight in the 2020-21 season.
Salernitana remained a point above bottom club Cagliari.
Atalanta moved to within a point of the top four with a 2-0 win over promoted Genoa. Bologna beat Frosinone 2-1.
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