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·27 January 2024

Serie A | Juventus 1-1 Empoli: Milik madness stalls Scudetto race

Despite being down to 10 men for 72 minutes due to an Arek Milik red card, Juventus still almost beat Empoli with Dusan Vlahovic until the Tommaso Baldanzi equaliser.

The Bianconeri were seeking a sixth straight Serie A victory to put them temporarily four points clear of Inter, who play tomorrow and have another game in hand. Danilo was rested, as he was one yellow card away from missing the Scudetto showdown at San Siro, with Federico Chiesa, Adrien Rabiot and Mattia De Sciglio injured. Davide Nicola beat Monza 3-0 on his Empoli debut with a Szymon Zurkowski hat-trick, though Simone Bastoni, Viktor Kovalenko, Mattia Destro, Gabriele Guarino and Tyronne Ebuehi were still injured.

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Elia Caprile fingertipped a Dusan Vlahovic free kick round the near post, then had his gloves stung by an Andrea Cambiaso snapshot.

However, the game changed when Milik lost the ball with a poor first touch and in a bid to make up for it lunged studs-up into Alberto Cerri’s ankle. The yellow card was changed to red after a VAR on-field review, the first dismissal of Juve’s season, meaning he will also be suspended against Inter.

Wojciech Szczesny flew to parry a Nicoló Cambiaghi curler, while Fabio Miretti pounced on a misplaced Emmanuel Gyasi pass only to fire over the bar.

It was 10-man Juventus who broke the deadlock on 50 minutes when a Miretti corner was nodded down by Federico Gatti, ricocheted off the shoulder of Empoli defender Ardian Ismajli and Vlahovic pounced with a striker’s instinct to volley in from six yards.

Dusan Vlahovic smashes in his 12th goal of the season 💥 — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 27, 2024

Alex Sandro’s risky interception prevented the Sebastiano Luperto cross finding Tommaso Baldanzi at the back post.

However, Baldanzi did get the equaliser out of nowhere, as his sudden snooker shot from distance made its way through a sea of legs to nestle into the far bottom corner, taking Szczesny by surprise.

The Cambiaghi strike was deflected over and then he tested Szczesny from a tricky angle at the near post, as it remained wide open to the final whistle.