TURIN, ITALY – JANUARY 18: Samuel Mbangula of Juventus is challenged by Youssouf Fofana of AC Milan during the Serie A match between Juventus and AC Milan at Allianz Stadium on January 18, 2025 in Turin, Italy. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Juventus inflicted the first defeat of the Sergio Conceicao era on Milan, as Samuel Mbangula and Tim Weah made the most of slack defending for a big victory in the hunt for a top four finish.
Both teams were desperate to climb back towards the top four, but also met a couple of weeks ago in the Supercoppa Italiana semi-final when Sergio Conceicao won 2-1 on his debut. His son Francisco Conceicao was still out injured with Arek Milik, Gleison Bremer and Juan Cabal, with Dusan Vlahovic only fit for the bench. Alvaro Morata sat out a ban against his former club, with Christian Pulisic, Malick Thiaw, Samuel Chukwueze, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Noah Okafor and Alessandro Florenzi sidelined.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Mbangula and Teun Koopmeiners scorchers skimmed the crossbar, while Mike Maignan had to come tearing out to stop Kenan Yildiz intercepting a dangerous back-pass.
Milan almost surprised Juve with a cheeky corner kick routine, Tijjani Reijnders peeling away to meet the Theo Hernandez set play unmarked from 12 yards and his finish deflected off Manuel Locatelli.
Federico Gatti nodded wide after shoving Matteo Gabbia, while Michele Di Gregorio had to get down for a desperate save on Rafael Leao, Khephren Thuram’s clean tackle preventing a Reijnders follow-up, then Nico Gonzalez wasting the counter-attack.
Maignan was also tested by Kenan Yildiz at the back post after a through ball went beyond Nico Gonzalez, while Gatti charged down a Theo Hernandez header on Leao’s cross.
Kenan Yildiz had an adductor issue and made way for Tim Weah at half-time, whose father famously played for Milan in the 1990s.
Maignan also felt a muscular problem and was visibly kicking with the other leg in the second half, but still had to make a double save on 53 minutes. First he used his chest to parry the Weah scorcher at the near post, then managed to beat away the Koopmeiners follow-up after a Theo Hernandez error on the clearance.
Juventus finally broke the deadlock with a little bit of luck, because Nico Gonzalez spread the ball down the left and Mbangula tried to curl towards the far post with the inside of the right boot, but it took a huge deflection off Emerson Royal to wrongfoot Maignan.
Moments later, Khephren Thuram won it back in midfield and immediately threaded through for Weah, who took on Fikayo Tomori to score with a left-foot angled drive from nine yards.
Milan struggled to mount any fightback, Theo Hernandez firing wide on a free kick routine and a glancing Francesco Camarda header off target.
Juventus 2-0 Milan
Mbangula 59 (J), Weah 64 (J)
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Image:Getty
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