Juventus Have Much Work to Do Despite Beating Derby Rivals Torino

Having suffered a shocking defeat to Sassuolo in their last outing, Juventus headed into Saturday’s Turin derby desperate to clinch all three points. The distance between the reigning champions and the early Serie A leaders was already growing, and the Bianconeri knew nothing less than a win would suffice.

Their problems were made more difficult by the form of their neighbours, with Torino having climbed as high as second in the standings earlier in the campaign. A goal deep in injury time would hand Juve the win, Juan Cuadrado’s dramatic late strike providing Juventus with a much needed 2-1 victory.

“This result is really hard to swallow,” Torino coach Giampiero Ventura told Sky Sport Italia shortly after the final whistle (h/t Football Italia). “In the last five minutes, we hoped to just get a draw and stopped playing. We gave our best before then, showing great intensity and going close to a second goal numerous times.”

Indeed the Granata boss was right to feel aggrieved, looking on as Gigi Buffon made a string of fine saves from Giuseppe Vives and Kamil Glik, the Juventus captain doing all he could to prevent his side suffering yet another loss.

Massimo Pinca/Associated Press

The Bianconeri suffered an early blow when Sami Khedira was forced to leave the game with an injury, the German international seemingly struggling with a calf issue. Yet they had Paul Pogba to thank for a lead, the 22-year-old opening the scoring with a deft lob after Paulo Dybala dummied Cuadrado’s pass.

Cesare Bovo equalised shortly after half-time, following up a blocked free-kick to smash home his first goal since May 2011. From there the game became more frenzied, but as time began to run out it seemed the two teams would share the points, especially when a Leonardo Bonucci header rattled the crossbar.

But substitute Alex Sandro stole into the Torino box deep into injury time and fired a low ball across the face of goal. Cuadrado slid onto it, moving quicker than Granata defender Bruno Peres to score a memorable first goal for the Turin giants following his summer move from Chelsea.

“Of course this win gives us a great boost and will help us achieve our objective of going on a strong run and making up ground on our rivals for the Scudetto,” Cuadrado told Mediaset Premium, per the official Juventus website.

“The truth is that we battled all the way until the end and when you work hard like that the results are there to be seen on the pitch,” the Colombian star continued. “We deserved the victory today.”

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However, the Bianconeri will not be getting too swept up in the emotions of this win over their cross-town rivals, as coach Massimiliano Allegri explained in his post-match interview with Sky Italia (h/t Football Italia):

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We had 12 points after 10 rounds, so tension was only natural. The team reacted well, obviously we have to improve a lot, but this was a small step forward. Before the defeat to Sassuolo, we had also had three good games in a row.

This represents three important points, a third consecutive victory at home and a step forward in the table. Now we have to focus on Tuesday and a decisive Champions League game with Borussia Monchengladbach.

"

The 48-year-old undoubtedly needs his team to string together some positive performances as they travel to Germany for that aforementioned fixture. They will then return to face Empoli before yet another international break, and to do so after enjoying a three-game winning streak is essential.

Beating Torino was a good starting point, but Allegri and Juventus still have much work to do.