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Juventus and AC Milan combined 11: Ronaldo and Higuain reunited

By John Vaccaro

ALLIANZ STADIUM, TURIN, ITALY - 2018/10/20: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus FC celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Serie A football match between Juventus FC and Genoa CFC. The match ended in a 1-1 tie. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
ALLIANZ STADIUM, TURIN, ITALY - 2018/10/20: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus FC celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Serie A football match between Juventus FC and Genoa CFC. The match ended in a 1-1 tie. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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STADIO GIUSEPPE MEAZZA, MILAN, ITALY – 2018/10/28: Gonzalo Higuain of AC Milan in action during the Serie A football match between AC Milan and UC Sampdoria. AC Milan won 3-2 over UC Sampdoria. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
STADIO GIUSEPPE MEAZZA, MILAN, ITALY – 2018/10/28: Gonzalo Higuain of AC Milan in action during the Serie A football match between AC Milan and UC Sampdoria. AC Milan won 3-2 over UC Sampdoria. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images) /

Italy’s two most successful teams will meet for the 285th time this Sunday in Milan.

Juventus leads the rivalry against AC Milan with 88 wins to Milan’s 67, but Milan has the most important win in the series. In 2003 the two teams met in the Champions League for the first time with the title on the line. The match featured some of the biggest names in Serie A history, including Alessandro Del Piero, Andriy Shevchenko, Andrea Pirlo, Paolo Maldini, and Gianluigi Buffon. There was no score in the first 120 minutes, but Milan was able to prevail on penalties to claim their 6th Champions League title and hand Juventus their 5th defeat in a Champions League final.

Milan went on to make two more Champions League finals after that, blowing a 3 goal lead against Liverpool in the second half in 2005 and the getting payback against Liverpool in 2007 while Juventus was mired in the scandal of Calciopoli. Since then the fortunes of these teams have swung in opposite directions.

Over the 11 years since Milan’s last champions league win they haven’t made it past the quarterfinal, haven’t been to the Champions League since the 2013-14 season, and have only won one Serie A title. Meanwhile, Juventus has won 7 consecutive Scudetti and appeared in the Champions League final in 2 of the last 4 seasons.

This season has seen that recent trend continue as Juventus once again sits in first place in Serie A, 6 points ahead of second place. They also looked poised to win the Champions League group. Meanwhile, Milan sits in 4th place in Serie A, 10 points back of Juventus, and in 2nd in their Europa League group.

While these teams had very different levels of success recently, there is no doubt that combining these squads would make an unbelievably talented squad.

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