21 March 2016
Derby domination
With victory in Sunday’s Derby Della Mole, the Bianconeri have ended up taking maximum points from seven of their previous ten away meetings with their inter-city rivals.
Before yesterday, Juventus had not put four goals past Torino in a league match since 17 November 2002, but this was the second time that they had done so this term following last December’s 4-0 win in the Coppa Italia. Incidentally, the Granata have not conceded more than three in a single match against any other opponent this season.
Record breaker
If it’s true that things get better with age then Gigi Buffon’s career is a sure case in point. Yesterday Juve’s captain rewrote the history books (not for the first time) by breaking Sebastiano Rossi’s all-time Serie A record of 929 minutes without conceding. Buffon ended up setting the bar at 973 minutes courtesy of Andrea Belotti’s penalty at the very start of the second half.
Key contributions
The scorer of Juve’s opener and provider of both Alvaro Morata’s second-half strikes, Paul Pogba, took his tally to eight goals and 11 assists in all competitions this term.
Pogba has now scored four times in eight Derby Della Mole meetings, making Torino his favourite opponent of all. Meanwhile, this was the first match in which the Frenchman contributed to three goals in a single match for Juventus.
For the man who benefitted most from Pogba’s creativity, Alvaro Morata, there was a third brace to celebrate since joining the Bianconeri in 2014 and a second in 2016 after striking twice away to Chievo in late January.
The key to victory
The Bianconeri, as they so often do, controlled proceedings down the flanks, while also staying compact and ready to pounce with accurate balls forward.
Once more, Juve’s defence played no small part in the victory. Despite not keeping what would have been an 11th consecutive clean sheet (the ten in a row registered after victory over Sassuolo remains nonetheless a Serie A record), they posted more impressive statistics, not least the 74 per cent of tackles won.
Daniele Rugani especially shone on the afternoon, playing the highest number of passes in total (66) and in the opposition half (35), whilst winning the ball back a team-high eight times and intercepting five Torino balls forward – a joint-high shared with Mario Lemina.
