Morata jogged quietly back to his half and raised a hand toward his teammates, acknowledging that he had not taken the chance well.
But the looks on his teammates' faces all said the same thing: they had known it would go exactly like that.
Morata could not quite work out what they were all trying to tell him.
'It seems I really have been away from the pitch for too long.'
'Even my understanding with my teammates has nearly gone.'
Morata thought to himself with a quiet resignation.
On the touchline, Allegri watched as Morata's one-on-one was saved by Leon exactly as he had expected, and he could not help but furrow his brow.
A moment later, though, his expression relaxed again.
Winning this match was not necessarily Juventus's only objective.
A draw was perfectly comfortable.
That fitted Allegri's managerial philosophy to a tee: if you can grind it out, you grind it out.
In all honesty, if you looked at the bigger picture, Allegri was arguably one of the greatest offenders against Serie A as a whole.
First he managed AC Milan and systematically dismantled everything that had made the club a genuine powerhouse.
He had taken a club with genuine nobility and reduced it to something entirely ordinary.
The situation had become so bad that even Ancelotti, a man who had a deep and warm relationship with AC Milan, had no desire to take the job again.
Ancelotti carried something of the quality that Phil Jackson had in basketball's NBA: put him in charge of a mid-table side and the results would likely be unremarkable, but hand him a truly elite squad and Ancelotti would deliver a Champions League trophy.
Then there were managers of a different type, better suited to overachieving with sides in the lower half of the table, and Allegri was very much that kind of manager.
Now Allegri had gone and turned Juventus into a workmanlike side in the same mould.
Yet Juventus were the strongest club in Serie A.
Think back to the Juventus that Lippi led ten years ago: the aura around that team was on an entirely different plane from what existed now.
When even the strongest club in Serie A projected an attitude that suggested they could not really beat anyone convincingly, how could the league possibly avoid its decline?
Leon threw the ball out again directly by hand, finding Bonaventura in midfield with very good precision.
Before this match had kicked off, Leon had made another attribute exchange.
Throwing ability: 10 to 13.
That had cost him 300 system points.
He currently had 37 points remaining.
The reason he had picked out Bonaventura was that Leon had already noticed he was the only midfielder in the squad with any real sense of how to build and organise play.
Most of the others, most of the time, would simply put their heads down and drive forward with the ball.
Bonaventura handled the ball beautifully, feigning to push down the flank before suddenly pulling it back and cutting through the centre instead.
Spotting Marchisio charging in to dispossess him, Bonaventura played a first-time through ball straight into the run of Menez, who was arriving late from deep.
Torres held his position at the front and did an excellent job of pinning the defence.
Menez's sudden forward run tore straight through the Juventus backline in an instant.
Menez let fly with a fierce driven shot.
It crashed against the crossbar.
That effort left the Juventus supporters with their hearts in their mouths.
AC Milan had come within a whisker of scoring.
The most significant change in AC Milan right now was probably that their attackers were going forward with far greater freedom and abandon.
With Leon behind them, they no longer had to think about defensive responsibility.
On many occasions, the moment they saw a one-on-one developing, they would simply stop and not even bother tracking back.
To outsiders, that looked completely outrageous.
But Leon's view was that it actually suited him better.
If an AC Milan player came sprinting back, there was a real chance it would no longer be classified as a one-on-one, and in that situation Leon could not be as confident he would make the save.
In the thirty-eighth minute, after repeated demands from Morata, Vidal slipped another through ball into his path.
Morata found himself in on goal again on another one-on-one.
This time, seeing Tevez arriving in support, he immediately chose to square the ball across, looking to set up Tevez.
Leon, however, had already read the situation and moved early, diving to smother Morata's pass before it could reach him.
Another one-on-one opportunity had been wasted.
Morata clutched his head in both hands, visibly deflated.
He was still a young player, and his mental resilience was something that still needed time to develop.
On the other side of the pitch, Tevez could only shake his head in resignation, every trace of the swagger he had carried during his first encounter with Leon long since gone.
Because Tevez had genuinely come to realise that he had no idea how to break down the goal Leon was guarding.
That first encounter, he had tried every move he had, and without exception, every single one had failed.
"Next time you get a one-on-one, shoot it yourself."
"Don't pass to me."
"Don't drag me into your embarrassment."
Tevez called out in Morata's direction.
"Uh..."
Morata was momentarily stunned.
Was this really the same Tevez who used to fear absolutely no one?
Had the times really changed that much?
The first half ended with both sides level at nil-nil.
Despite the draw, the home supporters in the stands were relatively satisfied.
If that scoreline held until the final whistle, Juventus would be through to the final.
Back in the dressing room, Leon had also come to that same conclusion.
Juventus's defensive structure was extremely well organised, and without any real pressure to attack, they were defending with complete composure and control.
Apart from Menez's shot that had struck the crossbar, AC Milan had not created anything of genuine threat in the first half.
If they were going to win this match, something had to change in the second half.
Inzaghi had clearly arrived at the same conclusion.
'Are we going to four forwards again?'
After a brief exchange with Tassotti, Inzaghi decided to bring Pazzini on from the start of the second half and deploy the four-forward setup once again.
That lineup could only be described as all-out attack with no thought for defence.
Inzaghi was acting with complete recklessness, and it was entirely down to Leon's presence that he could afford to.
Just at that moment, Inzaghi noticed Leon walking over, looking as though he had something he wanted to say.
"Leon?"
Inzaghi was mildly puzzled.
"Boss, in the second half I may be pushing out of the penalty area more."
Leon said it calmly.
Bloody hell.
Was Leon actually going to be even more aggressive than him?
Inzaghi had not expected Leon to come to him with a request like that.
"No problem."
"Let's go all out."
Inzaghi waved his hand with total confidence and not a shred of hesitation.
Beside him, Tassotti looked thoroughly exasperated.
Of every AC Milan manager he had ever worked alongside, not one had ever been quite as reckless as Inzaghi.
And yet, why did it somehow feel so exhilarating?
Tassotti, a legend of this club through and through, felt himself being led completely astray.
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