It was a thoroughly disappointing performance from Juventus as they rescued a 1-1 draw with Bologna, and it took huge controversy to bring us back level.

The Old Lady did very little in the opening 45 minutes, with our midfield providing even less than usual amidst our growing injury crisis, with Danilo, Rabiot and Juan Cuadrado providing much of our possession in the middle.

While neither side really managed any noteworthy attacks, the away side would no doubt have been the happier going into the break, with us failing to get any rhythm going.

Things took a turn for the worse after the break when Marko Arnautovic narrowly avoided the offside before rounding Wojciech Szczesny to put his side ahead minutes into the second-half, but the goal did seem to bring Juve to life.

That impetus quickly eroded when Matthijs De Ligt had to go off injured, just as we had already planned a double-change, and the three subs took some of our steam away.

The game really come to life in the final 10 minutes however when Alvaro Morata was hauled down on the edge of the box, and while the referee initially waved our pleas away, VAR called the referee over to reassess his decision.

After discussing with his pitch-side assistant and on seeing the replay, the defender was red-carded, and team-mate Gary Medel was unable to control his emotions as he confronted the ref and was immediately cautioned, only to continue his argument and see himself get another yellow, leaving his side to play out the match with just nine men.

The confusion sunk in as the arena realised that it wasn’t a penalty that was given, and Vlahovic placed the free-kick beyond the goal.

Our side threw everyone forward as we looked to take advantage, and with eight minutes added on there was every reason to believe we could save this.

While our initial efforts were rather tame, allowing the goalkeeper and his defenders to waste plenty of time, a free kick was eventually knocked onto Morata five minutes after the 90, and his overhead kick was headed towards the far post to be met by Vlahovic to head home.

While we continued to push up, we failed to add a winner, and should really have disputed the referee’s timing of the final whistle with no extra added on for the time wasting of Bologna, but admittedly we didn’t really deserve the three points.

Is it the Juventus midfield that is continuing to be our downfall or is there something deeper that needs addressing?

Patrick