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Mario Mandzukic and Cristiano Ronaldo scored as Juventus beat AC Milan to move six points clear at the top of the Serie A table.
Mandzukic opened the scoring in the eighth minute, towering over the back of Ricardo Rodriguez and heading in an Alex Sandro cross. Juventus dominated the match, ripping off 15 shots to AC Milan’s five, and Ronaldo finally finished it off in the 81st minute as Joao Cancelo’s shot from a tight angle was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma, and the rebound fell right to the Portuguese star who couldn’t miss on the doorstep.
On the other side, Gonzalo Higuain faced his parent club for the first time since moving to AC Milan on loan this summer, and he had a rough day. Higuain had a penalty saved in the 41st minute, with Wojciech Szczesny coming up big after VAR awarded a spot-kick for a Medhi Benatia handball. Before Higuain took the penalty, Ronaldo – his former teammate at Real Madrid – was seen giving whispering something to Szczesny, presumably some advice on potentially defending Higuain’s take.
Then, in the 83rd minute, after receiving a yellow card for a challenge with Benatia, Higuain went absolutely berserk, at which point he was immediately sent off by referee Paolo Silvio Mazzoleni. It took forever for players to calm Higuain down as he tried to shake off teammates and opponents and get to the referee.
The presence of Benatia in the lineup was in and of itself a talking point even before kickoff, as Juventus manager Maximiliano Allegri dropped fellow center-back Leonardo Bonucci in favor of the Moroccan. Bonucci was sat against his former club, having departed Juventus last summer before returning after just one year.
With the loss, Milan now sits outside the Champions League places in fifth, a point back of Lazio and four behind rivals Inter.
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