Juventus will return home early from Saudi Arabia as their participation in this year’s Supercoppa Italiana has already ended following a disappointing 2-1 defeat to AC Milan in the semi-finals.

The Bianconeri were looking to win their first trophy under coach Thiago Motta, but instead became the first casualty of the Sergio Conceicao era in Milan as their opponents secured a place in Monday’s final.

Both teams arrived at the Al Awwal Park stadium in Riyadh with injuries. Milan’s switch to Conceicao’s preferred 4-3-3 system was complicated by the absence of Rafael Leao, who was treated alongside Samuel Chukwueze, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Alessandro Florenzi in the room.

Meanwhile, Juve’s long-term absences – Gleison Bremer, Juan Cabal and Arkadiusz Milik – have left them desperate for reinforcements during this month’s transfer window, as discussed in this previous column.

How Juventus lost a lead over AC Milan

These injury problems were exacerbated in the pre-match warm-up when Francisco Conceicao was forced out of Juve’s starting XI due to a muscle problem and was replaced by Kenan Yildiz.

But this change paid off immediately, as the Turkish international sprinted into space on the right, latched on to a through pass from Samuel Mbangula and drove the ball into the top corner.

From then on Juve were clearly in control, another clever attempt from Yildiz in the first half was thwarted by a good save from Mike Maignan. The break did little to change the flow of the game and Juve should have been two goals ahead after the unstoppable Kenan Yildiz had a great chance which Dusan Vlahovic somehow managed to convert.

New look: Milan beat wasteful Juventus

That waste seemed to bring Milan to life: Theo Hernandez missed a similarly easy chance to equalize, and Michele Di Gregorio needed a good save to deny Tijjani Reijnders.

However, it only delayed the inevitable and when Manuel Locatelli brought down Christian Pulisic in the penalty area, the USA international recovered and made no mistake from the penalty spot.

Great defending from Weston McKennie would prevent Alvaro Morata from converting a chance to put the Rossoneri ahead, but Milan needed just four minutes to complete their comeback.

On the right, Yunus Musah tried to find a teammate, but his cross was deflected by Federico Gatti and into the net. Di Gregorio was called into action after another counterattack, but the damage had already been done and Juve would lose for only the second time that season.

“Yes, this is an important defeat,” admitted Thiago Motta when speaking to Sport Mediaset shortly after the final whistle. “It’s disappointing. I feel like we had a great chance to beat Milan but didn’t manage to do it.

“We have to improve our character because we were in control, we created chances to finish the game and we didn’t. When a negative incident happens, the character comes into play and you have to be able to react to it. We didn’t react to the first negative incident today and missed the chance to play in the final, which was entirely in our hands for 70 minutes.”

“Today we were better than our opponents in many ways, but with very little effort our opponents managed to turn things around. Although negative incidents happen, we have not responded properly.”

There’s no arguing with that analysis, but now the coach must ensure his team heeds those words before Juventus return to action in crucial games against Turin and Atalanta.