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Juventus player ratings vs AC Milan: Mandzukic and Ronaldo deliver for Juve

By John Vaccaro

MILAN, ITALY - NOVEMBER 11: Cristiano Ronaldo (R) of Juventus FC celebrates his goal during the Serie A match between AC Milan and Juventus at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on November 11, 2018 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
MILAN, ITALY - NOVEMBER 11: Cristiano Ronaldo (R) of Juventus FC celebrates his goal during the Serie A match between AC Milan and Juventus at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on November 11, 2018 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images) /
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Juventus’ Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny (Rear bottom) deflects a penalty kick shot by AC Milan’s Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain (not in picture) onto the post during the Italian Serie A football match AC Milan vs Juventus on November 11, 2018 at the San Siro stadium in Milan. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images)
Juventus’ Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny (Rear bottom) deflects a penalty kick shot by AC Milan’s Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain (not in picture) onto the post during the Italian Serie A football match AC Milan vs Juventus on November 11, 2018 at the San Siro stadium in Milan. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP) (Photo credit should read MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images) /

Juventus couldn’t have asked for a much better bounce back than the one they got against AC Milan on Sunday.

It didn’t take long for Juventus to take control of this match. In just the 8th minute Alex Sandro sent in a beautiful cross that the returning Mario Mandzukic was able to get on the end of and head into the back of the net. The match would carry on without incident until Juventus fell victim to an unfortunate penalty.

With time winding down in the first half Medhi Benatia found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time as Gonzalo Higuain popped a ball into the air that contacted Benatia who was too close to have time to get his arm out of the way. It looked as though Juve’s most notable loanee was about to equalize for the home side, but Wojciech Szczesny was able to push his penalty off the post and keep Juve’s lead safe.

In the 81st minute, Joao Cancelo unleashed a shot from the right wing that required a save from Gianluigi Donnarumma. Cristiano Ronaldo managed to gather the rebound from that save and Donnarumma was unable to save his follow up shot.

Two minutes later Higuain was shown a yellow card for a foul on Benatia and was not very pleased with the decision. He shared his displeasure with the ref and was promptly sent off, capping off a terrible match against his old team. Juve coasted through the last 10 minutes of the match en route to a 2-0 win.

GK: Wojciech Szczesny 9/10

Wojciech Szczesny absolutely made up for the mistakes he committed against Manchester United with his performance against Milan. Watching Gonzalo Higuain score an equalizer would’ve been absolutely demoralizing for Juventus, but Szczesny did a great job to keep the penalty out. His save kept the momentum of this match from swinging in Milan’s favor and should ease some of the doubts that crept up on Wednesday.

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