To anyone who might argue that this match wasn't being taken seriously by Juve, this video says it all about how serious they took it:
This and the way they were appealing about the penalty at the end (which in no way was a penalty) says to me that they wanted this match.
Anyway, onto the victory. I think the first half started slowly for us, where Juve could have taken the match by the scruff of the neck and probably gone on to win if they were more ruthless. Tactically, Allegri won the battle during this phase, starting with 4-3-1-2 against Montella's 4-3-3. Where the difficulty for us lay was in the numerical advantage they had in the centre of the pitch. Playing as a diamond, each of our midfielders were occupied (Locatelli by Pjanic, Kucka by Sturaro and Bertolacci by Khedira). That meant that Marchisio was the free man, who would either need to be covered by Bacca (leaving the Juve defenders, both capable ball players, free) or one of the mezzala (usually Kucka) would be forced to push up to close him down, meaning the winger (Suso) was forced to cover Sturaro. This all meant Alex Sandro had free reign on the wing, as Paletta and Romagnoli were occupied by the two forwards and usually Abate was forced central to help cover and minimise one on one battles (which would be very difficult to win). Ultimately Juve got a number of corners on which Chiellini scored one, where he wasn't being covered and was allowed to run free at the ball.
It wasn't too long after that where we started getting a foothold on the game. We changed approach a little, with the team pressing higher. Bacca was closing down the defenders, with both mezzala pushing high. What this meant was the Juve backline couldn't take time to pick their pass, but also that we'd have a midfielder on Marchisio and another midfielder to help cover anyone else dropping back to pick up the ball. This meant that to pass out, Juve were forced to look wide, but with the wingbacks pulling back to offer themselves for the ball, Suso and Bonaventura were able to close them down to maintain the high press. At this point we got control of the game, but the key was Alex Sandro going off injured, as Evra came on and had nothing short of a nightmare against Suso, who was putting in fantastic crosses at will, one of which Bonaventura converted. The fact Bonaventura scored close to half time only benefited us as we went in at the break with a psychological advantage.
The second half was much of the same as how the first ended, we had control and ascendancy, maintaining a high press for long periods. The key problem for us was mostly the final product, as we (mostly Bacca) failed to convert a huge number of chances. There were some phases where Juve dominated, mostly because it would have been physically extremely demanding on the players to maintain the press the whole match, but most of those were dealt with quite well, with the team becoming compact and affording little to no spaces. The key on how we were creating chances was down to the Juve system, as they maintained 4-3-1-2, but with both wingbacks pushed back, we had a lot of room on the wings to operate, which Suso in particular had great joy in doing so, particularly against Evra who was simply outplayed.
Towards the last 15-20 minutes of the 90, the team was physically starting to struggle, but Montella made a smart sub by bringing on Pasalic in midfield. His physique and energy helped us get control again and at the very least keep Juve from dominating, but his vertical running also helped us find outlets going forward.
In extra time, the complexion changed, as initially the teams remained balanced, but fatigue started setting in. Montella made subs to try and avert the problem with Lapadula and Antonelli, but by that point the team was forced back and were all but playing for penalties.
On the penalties, I will say that the best two from our team were actually the two I was most nervous about, Kucka and Pasalic.
Players:
Donnarumma: Excellent performance all round, he's had a few bumps of late, but yesterday was composed and at his best. The outstanding save on Dybala's penalty was the cherry on top.
Abate: A great performance after early struggles, he dominated on the right with Suso and pushed up frequently. His recent upturn in form is good to see, last night was the best one yet.
Paletta: Hugely dominant, rarely letting Higuain anywhere near the ball.
Romagnoli: Similar to Paletta, this guy's become an outstanding player for us.
De Sciglio: A very solid game, generally had the better of Liechsteiner and was looking confident, concentrated and motivated.
Locatelli: I find it odd there's some disappointment about his performance, I thought he was extremely solid and Pjanic did nothing against him. On the ball, he made very few mistake and actually despite him scoring the winner last time, I think yesterday may have been a better game from him than the league game.
Kucka: His athleticism and aggression was important even though his technical quality at times was really lacking.
Bertolacci: One of his best games in a Milan shirt. I think in midfield he was very disciplined and showed decent quality on the ball. I thought Montella was making a mistake by putting him as regista to cover Dybala, but he had him under control for all but the one Dybala chance towards the end. Great game.
Suso: Unquestionably man of the match. I had doubts about his future at Milan back in the summer, now he's probably the second or third name on the team sheet. I really love watching him play, and I think he has already made history at the club by being our most successful Spanish player ever?
Bonaventura: Fantastic game, he was very dangerous and scored a fantastic goal. He seems to have found a place as a leader this year on the pitch, as even in difficult times he's not disappearing as much as he has in the past.
Bacca: The weakest player on the pitch for us, while initially I was forgiving of his first miss or two, I grew frustrated that our supposedly star player couldn't score an open goal 2 feet out.
Lapadula: Came on, but to little effect. The team was drained already by this point so his influence was weak. His penalty was pretty terrible too.
Pasalic: As mentioned above, an excellent influence giving the team enough drive to help see us over the line. His penalty was also excellent, massive pressure on young shoulders, but he showed great character. I wouldn't mind keeping him if possible.
Antonelli: Came on at LB after Abate was physically drained.
On the whole I think Montella deserves massive credit. His work has been exceptional this season, bringing a new personality to this side. He's using mostly the same players of last year, but we're a completely transformed team under him, looking much stronger, with a team full of the young talents being given space to shine and confidence being much more apparent. Of late, while we've been struggling to finish moves, I have noticed we're starting to develop a stronger identity on the ball too. We're dominating possession better and moving the ball better in midfield. The best example of this is that when we faced Juve in the league, they had 58% possession, last night they had 49%. However, it's not just this game, against Atalanta we dominated around 58%, had the better share of possession vs Roma and vs Crotone we had over 70% possession.
I will end on saying I think we've finally turned a corner and we have a generation of players that we can rebuild around. I've seen of late in the mercato thread that there is an expected drop in the second half of the season, but in all honesty while this is a possibility, I don't think we'll see a major drop. The reason is that this season the team is very different than recent years. First and foremost, we're still growing so we're yet to see what can actually be achieved with the group as it is. However, the other reason I think we can maintain this form (if not improve) is because this year we look stronger, not just on the pitch, but mentally. In previous years we have regularly commented on how fragile the group was, or its lack of personality or its inconsistency etc. None of that is being said this year, and actually it's quite the opposite. We don't look fragile and commonly the young players are being commended on their personality. We're not inconsistent, but instead we're delivery consistently good results. Basically, yes there are faults in this side, never mind squad (as I've said before, the reality is we can beat Juve, but can also lose to Udinese), but we should be optimistic with what we have and what's being built.
