Juventus emerged victorious in the COVID bowl on Wednesday night, fueling their comeback hopes thanks to the depth of its roster, which showed and delivered against a depleted Milan despite the absence of some pieces.
Wojciech Szczesny: it was another rather unremarkable match for the rearguard as the opponents were able to create chances in spades and the ability to lock it down simply remains wanting. The Bianconeri were quite lucky to give up just one goal, on a counter-attack, and have to thank their goalkeeper for that, as he answered the bell with authority in multiple potent efforts from outside the box by the Rossoneri, always managing to avoids those pesky rebounds that often result in tap-ins. Gianluca Frabotta was arguably the best performer among defenders, as he was unphased by the magnitude of the clash and mostly kept it simply, constantly making the right choice with the ball on his feet.
Weston McKennie (4 points): the American youngster was initially spared but still came through off the bench, sealing the deal at his second killer cut in the span of few minutes, punching it home from close range on a relentless action by Dejan Kulusevski. He is becoming increasingly essential to the mechanisms of the team with his versatility, energy but also smartness and multi-faceted skill-set. The starters instead had a rather confusion night as they were unable pull the string despite facing a very undermanned midfield that had basically no distributors: Rodrigo Bentancur had a befuddling display with multiple misplaced passes and giveaways and could have easily been red-carded, while Aaron Ramsey was not clutch when he had the opportunity to finish from good spots. The fresh Adrien Rabiot was the most convicing of the bunch with a run-of-the-mill outing.
Federico Chiesa (8 points): he provided that extra something that is needed to prevail in monumental clashes like this one, scoring two pearlers where his pace, his suddenness and his shooting ability were in full display. He went toe-to-toe with Theo Hernandez and came away with a brace, bagging two cross-shots after burstling runs, one with the right foot, the second with the left one, both just outside of the reach of Gianluigi Donnarumma. The Madama also welcomed back the best versions of Paulo Dybala and Dejan Kulusevski, who both produced great assists: La Joya with a gorgeous back-heel flick for to set up Chiesa, the ex-Parma attacker with a great paso de la muerte after picking his way to the base line. Cristiano Ronaldo took a backseat in this one, where he decided to strand himself out on the left wing and his output was limited to a pair of brilliant passes, but his teammate fully rose to the occasion.
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