Controversial penalty lifts Juve

MILAN —AC Milan came within seconds of ending Juventus 17-month run of home league wins before a hugely controversial penalty gave the Serie A leader a 2-1 win in a stormy match Friday. The penalty was awarded for handball by Mattia De Sciglio although Stephan Lichtsteiners cross hit him at point-blank range and, in any case, appeared to strike his stomach rather than his hand. After a long consultation between the referee and the goal-line assistant, and amid furious Milan protests, Paulo Dybala converted the spot kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time to give Juventus its 31st home league win in a row. Juve pulled 11 points clear of second-placed AS Roma. Milan is seventh. Television pictures showed that Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who nearly got a hand to Dybalas penalty, said “its not possible, its always them” to teammates as he left the field. Defender Mehdi Benatia gave Juventus the lead on the half hour from close range but Carlos Bacca leveled two minutes before halftime when he prodded the ball past Gianluigi Buffon from Gerard Delofeus pass. Espanyol defeats Las Palmas Espanyol twice relinquished leads and still beat Las Palmas 4-3 in the Spanish league Friday, keeping alive its hopes of qualifying for the Europa League next season. The home victory left Espanyol in ninth place, six points behind sixth-place Villarreal, the last team in position to qualify for European competition next season. Balotelli on target Mario Balotelli struck his 10th league goal of the season to lead the fightback as French title contender Nice drew at home with Caen 2-2 Friday. With Nice trailing 2-0 with 20 minutes left, Balotelli ended a four-game goal drought with a close-range finish from defender Dantes headed pass. Seven minutes later, substitute Anastasios Donis — on loan this season from Italian champion Juventus — netted the equalizer when his shot hit the right post and the left before rolling over the line. Nice has been the surprise of the season and moved up to second place, one point above defending champion Paris Saint-Germain and two behind leader Monaco heading into this weekends games. For Caen striker Ivan Santini and Yann Karamoh scored. In the other match of the day Marseille blanked Angers 3-0. Bremen holds Leverkusen Werder Bremen goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald saved a last-second penalty to preserve a 1-1 draw at Bayer Leverkusen and deny coach Tayfun Korkut a winning start in the Bundesliga Friday. Omer Toprak had the chance to win the game in the sixth minute of injury time after Maximilian Eggestein fouled Benjamin Henrichs to concede the spot kick. Substitute Claudio Pizarros late equalizer denied Korkut, who took over from the sacked Roger Schmidt Monday, a confidence-boosting victory for Leverkusen to recover from its worst Bundesliga season in 14 years. — Agencies