It was a capital crime for the ref not giving the goal to us, no doubt about it. But it was an even bigger capital crime from our players to let Juve got back to the game and controlled the preceedings in the 2nd half. Why did we let Juve controlled the midfield? Why did they let Pirlo orchestrated their attack while twisting and turning his way around our midfield and find the most damaging pass? Why did we give Pepe all the time in the world to cross?
We let Juve off the hook. Call me a pessimist, but had we were 2-0 up, I am sure Juve would find a way back as we would retreat and try to protect the lead. When it was 1-0 up, it was still a blanced game because we still tried to attack but had it been 2-0, we would definitely retreat and defend. Did our players watch Juve game vs Napoli at Sao Paolo in front of the rabid Neapolitan tifosi? They were down 2-0, then 3-1 but somehow managed to claw their way back and ended the game 3-3. That's the kind of spirit that they have this season. 2-0 at half time? They would and could do it.
They have more pride going into this game. They felt they have a chance to go back to the top perch where they used to belong. They felt they have a really good chance to win the scudetto this season and when your team is filled with players who hasn't tasted success at all or for a long time, the hunger is bigger. They felt they have a chance to finish this season unbeaten and they fought for that bragging rights.
We were playing with that kind of passion in the first half. The this-is-our-house mentality was obvious. We wanted that 3 points to create bigger gap with Juve and nullifying their one-game in hand advantage. We wanted revenge for that 2-0 loss at Turin and the Copa loss. We wanted to win the scudetto again. We wanted to show that we could do it without Ibra. We showed all of those, but only on first half. Pepe only came alive mid-way in the 2nd half because we lowered our guard, Marchissio suddenly got better because we gave him space, Pirlo had time to direct his pass because our midfield retreated near the penalty box and he found nobody was breathing down his neck like in the 1st half.
All kinds of talking would surely continue in the weeks to come. That the disallowed goals were different and all kinds of other talks. But for me, it was obvious : we let them off the hook. Milan let Juve got back to the game.