MATCH REPORT: JUVENTUS 1-1 ATALANTA.

Just when you thought Juve was on track they are held to another 1-1 draw vs Atalanta.

Federico Chiesa and Remo Freuler scored spectacular goals, but the Juventus and Atalanta goalkeepers dominated this 1-1 draw, especially Pierluigi Gollini for saving Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty.

The build-up was overshadowed by the massive falling out between Gian Piero Gasperini and Papu Gomez, so the captain was benched, with Josip Ilicic, Mario Pasalic, Rafael Toloi and Mattia Caldara injured. Juve missed Giorgio Chiellini and Merih Demiral again, while Alvaro Morata was preferred to Paulo Dybala.

Alvaro Morata pounced on a back-pass when Cristian Romero was caught napping in the opening minutes, but Cristiano Ronaldo fired wide under pressure from Jose Luis Palomino.

There was an absolutely bizarre moment when Morata sprung the offside trap and went clear on goal, but instead tried to roll it across for Ronaldo, who was blocked off by Berat Djimsiti, then when it came back to him, the Spaniard for some reason attempted a back-heel flick wide of an empty net.

Matthijs de Ligt made a decisive block on Duvan Zapata, but Arthur came off worse from a three-way collision in midfield and had to make way for Adrien Rabiot.

Juve broke the deadlock soon after with a moment of magic from Federico Chiesa, as Rodrigo Bentancur intercepted a poor clearance, the winger shimmied to get a bit of space against his defender on the edge of the box and curled an unstoppable right-foot strike into the near top corner.

Atalanta had a huge chance to equalise straight away, Duvan Zapata onto a through ball, but Wojciech Szczesny managed to get his leg to it from six yards and it squirmed up over the bar.

Leonardo Bonucci also required an acrobatic clearance to stop the Colombian going clear, and Ruslan Malinovskyi drilled inches wide before his free kick stung Szczesny’s gloves.

It was a sparkling start to the second half too, as Morata completed a give-and-go with Weston McKennie to force a very brave save from Pierluigi Gollini, who charged down the shot from point-blank range with his face.

Papu Gomez came off the bench and within four minutes had contributed to the equaliser, as on his assist, Remo Freuler skipped away from Rabiot to blast his finish off the underside of the crossbar.

Moments later, the referee awarded a soft penalty when Chiesa went down easily under pressure from Hans Hateboer. However, Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty was very weak and Gollini was able to smother it dead.

Gollini did even better a minute after that with cat-like reflexes to deny Morata when sent clear by McKennie with a trailing hand.

After that, Atalanta started to take control and pour forward, including Szczesny flying to palm away a looping Cristian Romero header.

It remained wide open, Gollini parrying a Danilo angled drive with his legs, Szczesny beating away the Papu Gomez snapshot and Ronaldo firing over the bar.