Juventus 2 - Torino 0: Initial reaction and random observations

11/09/2024 05:45 PM

Now that's how you go into the international break.

Like so many years before, we can say it once again: Torino é bianconera.

Not a bad way to ring in Alessandro Del Piero's 50th birthday, either. Or when there's a guy (or gal) in a NASA space suit walking into the stadium and around the field prior to kickoff. Whichever one you prefer, you can go with that one.

No matter how you looked at it, the 159th Derby della Mole played out like so many others — and that's because it ended in a Juventus win. Juve built an early lead through Timothy Weah's 18th-minute goal in what was a first half in which Thiago Motta's side was in complete control. And while the second 45 minutes didn't exactly go as smoothly as the first simply because of the physical nature that became of it, Kenan Yildiz capped the night in which his idol celebrated his golden birthday with a slick diving header to give Juventus a 2-0 win over Torino on Saturday at the Allianz Stadium.

Yildiz, as so many hoped he would, proceeded to celebrate like his idol, too — putting the finishing touches on another outing in which he was one of Juve's leading men.

(By the way, the other No. 10 at Juventus, Cristiana Girelli, also scored earlier in the day Saturday as the Bianconere beat Milan, so it was a proper celebration on Del Piero's birthday in just about any way you could think was possible.)

It was a showing that surely will have Motta pleased after taking part in his first Turin derby. Juventus, for the most part, gave Torino very little chance to do much of anything. Even as the pattern of play slowed down a bit in the second half because of its start-stop nature — seriously, there were so many fouls and stoppages to go along with much more even possession — Torino really couldn't muster much of anything.

It was because of that stability at the back — something that we haven't always seen from Juventus over the course of the last month since Gleison Bremer saw his ACL go pop — that prevented Torino from finding little room to even put Mattia Perin's goal under pressure. It didn't matter that Torino did see more of the ball after the halftime break than before it, Juve defended well, they recovered the ball well, and they stifled a Torino attack that hadn't scored in its last two games to see that scoreless streak extended to a third straight outing.

And this is after a first half in which Juve were in complete control both before and after Weah gave them the lead with his fourth goal of the 2024-25 season.

After such a busy three-week stretch in which Saturday night's derby was their seventh game in the last 22 days and there being limited depth options due to injuries and suspensions, you maybe wondered where this team's legs would be. They clearly showed early on that and worries about their fitness level shouldn't be there anymore. They looked crisp, strong and drove the ball forward to keep the pressure on Torino's backline. Eight of Juve's 13 shots on the night came in the first half, with a deserved lead in their back pocket as well.

All told, it ended up being the kind of performance that Juventus can continue to build on as we go into the November international break and look at some big-time fixtures coming up once play resumes.

Considering how Juve were playing going into the last international break, this feels like Motta's squad is in a better spot now than they were a little over a month ago. So maybe, just maybe, things are starting to click on a consistent basis after a couple of months in which Motta's squad showed flashes but also struggled to do it a decent amount of the time.

What better way than to play like this against Torino in the Derby della Mole, right?

Almost makes you want to celebrate like Del Piero once or twice. (Or go find some way to get your hands on a space suit. But that's on you — and doesn't exactly sound easy.)

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

• Text from a Juventus friend about Yildiz early in the first half: "Would be awesome to score and celebrate with La Linguaccia." Ask and you shall receive, my friend. Good times.
• Yildiz deserved that goal with how he played, too. The young man was on one.
• That run from Cambiaso on the shot that led to Weah's goal — that was pretty.
• You know you've done something pretty cool when Claudio Marchisio is out here live tweeting winky faces about something you did.

• The winky face from Claudio says one thing, so I will say another: This was Cambiaso at his very best against Torino. He was everywhere. I looked at his heat map after the final whistle and, basically, the entire left channel was just dark red. Dude was everywhere on the left flank — defense, midfield, attack, everywhere. He made three interceptions and two tackles, he had a couple of key passes, touched the ball 97 times and completed 92% of his passes. That's an all-around performance from a fullback if I've ever seen one.
• The xG on Weah's goal was 0.86. If a wide-open shot on a wide-open goal from a couple of yards out isn't full-on 1.00, then I don't know what is. Stat nerds, I tell ya.
• By the way, Weah has never previously scored more than three goals in a domestic season. He's now got four goals. It's only November. Guessing he likes this season a lot better than some of the others.
• Federico Gatti didn't have to do Vanja Milinkovic-Savic like that. He really didn't.
• Torino had one shot and an xG of 0.02 in the first half. That's the Juve defense I know and love, my friends.
• Mattia Perin's first save of the night came in the 89th minute.
• I personally feel like Juventus' two Frenchmen in the starting lineup played quite well.
• Going off that, it's pretty clear that Gatti and Pierre Kalulu are hands down the best pairing in the center of defense during this Bremer-less time of our lives.
• Dusan Vlahovic touches through 65 minutes: 12. Not great!
• Dusan Vlahovic's final number of touches against Torino: 17. Not great!
• Also, let's not forget the visual of Vlahovic coming off the field for Francisco Conceição. Folks, we've got our talls and smalls back just like it's 2020 and Adrien Rabiot and Arthur Melo are back in the center of Juve's midfield. Celebrate that like Del Piero!
• And man, if Conceição had that far-post curler of his sneak in rather than go just wide of the upper-V, that sure would have been a fun thing to celebrate.
• It's OK, though, because a few minutes later we got Yildiz actually celebrating like Del Piero because of a goal assisted by ... Conceição. It all works out in the end, my friends.
• Speaking of Yildiz, he's now the third-youngest Juventus player to score in the Derby della Mole, according to Opta. Something tells me that he might score a few more goals against Torino while wearing the No. 10 jersey before it's all said and done.
• Before that goal, who else felt their stomach drop when Yildiz went down somewhat awkwardly in the box? Yeah, that's not how I want to see that man hit the ground. Thankfully, he was OK and then went on to score a diving header. Good work, young man.
• One more Yildiz stat: Guess who led Juventus in tackles against Torino? Yeah, it was Yildiz. He had five tackles! That's twice as many as any of his Juve teammates not named Pierre Kalulu.
• Manuel Locatelli threw out another one of those performances that had a lot of us thinking "What the hell are you thinking, Mister Spalletti?"
• Teun Koopmeiners will eventually score one of those pullbacks at the top of the box. I promise, he actually will. We don't know when he will, but he will.
• Juventus still haven't suffered defeated to a visiting Torino side since 1995. Life was so much easier back then.
• Something that has flown somewhat under the radar because Juventus still has some things to work out as this season quickly approaches its midway point: They're in the midst of a 20-game unbeaten run in Serie A. So, thanks Max and Thiago? Look at them go!
• Before Weah's goal, the last five Derby della Mole goals in Serie A had been through set pieces. I am mentioning this because it just feels like one of the most Derby della Mole things to be thrown out there.
• Now we go into the international break and hope that nobody gets hurt over the next two weeks. I don't know about you all, but after seven games in 22 days, I am tired. Time for a rest even though the Juve players who are going out on international duty won't do that at all.