Bologna 1-1 Juventus: Milik strike ends losing run but Bianconeri held

Juventus missed the opportunity to go second in Serie A as they were held to a 1-1 draw away at Bologna on Sunday.

Second-placed Lazio were beaten 3-1 by Inter earlier in the day, yet Riccardo Orsolini smashed home a first-half penalty at Renato Dall’Ara to leave Juve fearing a fourth straight league defeat.

Those concerns were not helped when Arkadiusz Milik missed a chance to level from the spot, but he brilliantly fired in after the interval to deny Bologna a first Serie A win over the Bianconeri in 22 attempts.

Juve remain below Lazio and crucially just three points ahead of Inter, Milan and Roma in fourth, fifth and sixth, and they face a real dogfight over the final six games if they are to finish in the Champions League places.

Fighter mentality #BolognaJuve pic.twitter.com/U0kOPXvkc6

— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) April 30, 2023

The hosts were ahead after just 10 minutes, a lengthy VAR review adjudging Danilo to have brought down Orsolini before the winger picked himself up off the turf to thump his penalty into the bottom-right corner.

Lukasz Skorupski preserved his side’s lead with a sensational double-stop from Nicolo Fagioli, and the goalkeeper came up big again shortly after.

The referee initially awarded a free-kick after Milik was pushed over by Jhon Lucumi, but the VAR found the foul to have occurred inside the Bologna box. Skorupski was not fooled by the striker’s hop-skip-and-a-jump penalty technique, though, comfortably getting down to his right to save.

Milik was more ruthless in the second half, however, bouncing back from his poor spot-kick to brilliantly lash a first-time snap-shot into the bottom corner and level.

There were big chances at either end in the closing stages, but neither side could find a winner as Juve at least snapped their losing streak.