For eighty-eight minutes, this felt like it belonged to AC Milan. They had bloodied Juventus' nose with a single incisive strike and were guarding their lead with the confidence of a side that believed the points were already banked. Then Federico Gatti rose in the second minute of stoppage time, met Teun Koopmeiners' cross with his forehead, and buried it high into the centre of the goal to turn the Allianz Stadium into a wall of noise.

The 1-1 draw kept both sides locked together on seven points and unbeaten, but the emotions could hardly have been further apart. Milan trudged off feeling robbed of two points they had earned with a smarter, sharper performance. Juventus, by contrast, celebrated Gatti's header as though it were a winner, roared on by a home crowd that had spent the evening growing more anxious by the minute.

It was the kind of finish that flatters the losing narrative and rescues the deserving-less one. Juventus were not at their best. Milan, for long stretches, were the more coherent team. But football keeps score in goals, not in control, and the last goal of the night belonged to the hosts.

Cissè strikes first

The breakthrough, when it came in the 68th minute, was a thing of clean execution. Samuel Chukwueze, a persistent menace on the flank all evening, slipped the ball into the path of Alphadjo Cissè on the left edge of the box. There was no hesitation. Cissè opened his body and stroked a right-footed shot low across the goalkeeper and into the bottom right corner, the ball nestling in the net before the home defence could react.

It was a goal that had been coming. Milan had carried the greater threat since the interval, using Chukwueze's directness to stretch the Juventus back line and probe for the gaps that eventually appeared. Cissè's finish was the reward for their ambition, a strike delivered with the composure of a forward who had waited patiently for exactly that opening.

For a spell after the goal, Milan looked entirely in control of the contest. They pressed with purpose, kept possession in the areas that mattered, and forced Juventus into the kind of hurried, hopeful football that betrays a team chasing shadows. The visiting supporters sensed a famous away win taking shape.

Gatti has the final word

Juventus' response was more desperation than design for much of the closing stretch. Bodies were thrown forward, crosses were flung into the box, and the anxiety in the stands seeped onto the pitch. Milan, sensing the finish line, retreated deeper and invited the pressure, gambling that they could survive the storm. It very nearly worked.

But set pieces have a way of undoing even the most disciplined defensive shift, and so it proved. Deep into stoppage time, Juventus won a free situation and Koopmeiners floated the delivery into the danger area. Gatti, a centre-half by trade, attacked the ball with a striker's hunger, meeting it in the middle of the box and directing his header into the roof of the net. Redemption, in the ninety-second minute.

The reaction told the story of how much it meant. Gatti wheeled away, arms outstretched, swallowed by teammates who understood the value of a point snatched from the jaws of defeat. Koopmeiners' assist was the crowning contribution of a night in which his creativity had flickered without reward until the very last moment.

What the point means

The draw leaves the two clubs level on seven points, both still unbeaten after three matches, both with a record of two wins and a solitary stalemate. Milan sit fourth, marginally ahead on goals scored with five to their name against two conceded. Juventus are fifth, their tally of four goals and just one conceded speaking to a defensive solidity that Gatti embodied both in his day job and in his decisive moment forward.

For Milan, there will be a nagging sense of opportunity spurned. They were the better side for long periods and had the platform to see out a result that would have carried them clear of a direct rival and stamped early authority on their season. To concede so late, from a set piece, will sting a manager who saw his team defend so resolutely until the final seconds.

Juventus, meanwhile, can take genuine encouragement from the manner of their recovery. A team that refuses to accept defeat, that keeps swinging until the referee's whistle, is a team with character to build upon. The performance was flawed, but the mentality was not, and points earned in the ninety-second minute have a habit of feeling more precious come the season's reckoning.

The road ahead

Three games into the campaign, the early Serie A table is a tightly packed affair, and this meeting of two of Italian football's grandest names did little to separate them. Both remain unbeaten, both are within touching distance of the summit, and both will feel this fixture could shape the tone of the months to come. The margins, on this evidence, will be desperately fine.

For Juventus, the challenge now is to translate resilience into consistency, to marry the fight shown at the death with the control that eluded them for much of the evening. Gatti's header buys them momentum and morale, but the display underlined that there is sharpening to be done if they are to climb from fifth into the places their history demands.

AC Milan must dust themselves down quickly and channel their frustration into the belief that they were, for ninety minutes, the superior team on the road against a storied opponent. Fourth place and an unbeaten start remain a foundation worth prizing. The lesson of this night is a simple, brutal one: in Serie A, no lead is safe until the final whistle sounds.