Juventus: The 10 Best Bianconeri Goals from the First Half of 2014-15

Juventus went into the winter break as the Serie A leader in goals with 34—six more than their closest three opponents, who are all locked at 28. Add to that total seven goals in the Champions League and two in the Supercoppa Italiana, and you're looking at a total of 43 goals in the four months and change since Serie A revved up its engine for the 2014-15 season.

Some of those 43 strikes have been fantastic. Some stood out for the finish, others for fantastic build-up play that made the climax elegantly simple.

As the season resumes for the Bianconeri, let's take a look at the 10 best goals that the team has scored going into the winter break. Enjoy.

10. Stephan Lichtsteiner vs. Parma

Stephan Lichtsteiner doesn't score often, but when he does, he has a tendency to do it in style. This goal—one of several on this countdown from Juve's 7-0 annihilation of Parma on November 9—might be his best in a Juve shirt.

With the Bianconeri already up by one, a Paul Pogba cross was hit back out by the Parma defense, but only as far as Simone Padoin, who dropped the ball off to Carlos Tevez. Tevez loaded up for a long shot, which was blocked and ricocheted across the top of the box to Lichtsteiner. The Swiss Express controlled the ball with one touch and, with a defender bearing down from behind, sent a rocket past a diving Antonio Mirante.

9. Carlos Tevez vs. Malmo

Juventus had started slowly in their last two Champions League campaigns, and a win in their opener against Malmo was considered vital to avoiding the embarrassing crash-out of a season ago.

For nearly 60 agonizing minutes, the team's fans dreaded yet another early-season draw against weaker Scandinavian opposition. Then a stunning setup and a cool finish sent the Juventus Stadium into euphoria.

The move started with a simple pass from Stephan Lichtsteiner to Carlos Tevez. The Argentine spotted Kwadwo Asamoah making a diagonal run into space and fired it to him. The Ghanaian star stopped the ball's momentum with an exquisite back-heel, leaving it sitting perfectly for Tevez, who had followed his pass.

El Apache confidently dispatched his first Champions League goal since 2008 to put Juve into the lead. He followed up with an impressive free kick in the game's dying moments to seal the win.

8. Andrea Pirlo vs. Olympiakos

In the last four years, no top goals countdown for Juve has been complete without an Andrea Pirlo free kick.

The dead-ball master has put a pair of free kicks into the net this year, but this masterpiece against Olympiakos in the Champions League is by far the superior of the two.

First, consider the circumstances. Juve was coming off two straight Champions League losses, including a 1-0 loss against the Greeks in Piraeus. If they didn't win this game, their hopes for advancing would be almost nil.

The game also marked Pirlo's 100th Champions League appearance. L'Architetto celebrated in style with an absolutely gorgeous strike that bent and dipped into the top corner and left Roberto flailing.

The strike opened the scoring, and Juve ended up winning an exciting, see-saw match and kept their hold of second place in Group A.

7. Alvaro Morata vs. Parma

Alvaro Morata has tons of potential that hadn't been tapped at Real Madrid.

At Juve, he has gotten on the field far more than he was in Spain, although not as much as he and the team's fans may have liked.

That said, he's produced a few brilliant moments this year. One such instance was during the waning moments of Juve's 7-0 evisceration of Parma.

With time winding down on the dominating win, Morata—who had already scored once as a substitute—drifted into the middle of the box as the ball snaked from Simone Padoin to Paul Pogba to Stephan Lichtsteiner.

The Swiss international skipped past the man in front of him and lofted a ball toward the penalty spot. Morata leaped, contorted his right leg and volleyed the ball past a hapless Mirante for the game's final score.

6. Alvaro Morata vs. Empoli

Morata's true moment of brilliance was this wonder-strike against Empoli.

The Bianconeri were coming off their only league loss of the season in Genoa the week before and had been sluggish in Tuscany. They only managed to take the lead on a Pirlo free kick and were hanging on to a tenuous one-goal lead with 18 minutes left.

Morata had been afforded a rare start in the match, and he was running slightly to the right of the channel in the Empoli penalty area when Carlos Tevez slipped him a pass. He controlled, took a quick dribble and curled the ball into the top corner with his weaker left foot.

Empoli ended the game down a man and down 2-0 thanks to Morata's best goal of the season.

5. Paul Pogba vs. Sassuolo

Paul Pogba is the most exciting young midfielder in the game. He announced himself in the 2012-13 season with a bevy of long-range goals. Soon enough, strikes from range from the boot of the young Frenchman became known as PogBooms.

This year, Pogba has scaled back on the long bombs, but this curler against Sassuolo was one of his prettiest.

His team was down 1-0 after an effort from Simone Zaza. Six minutes later, Carlos Tevez fed Pogba from the left wing. Pogba controlled with a touch before rearing back and unleashing a curling effort from the edge of the box into the top-right corner.

The goal ended up being the final tally of a 1-1 draw.

Six weeks later, Pogba attempted the exact same shot against Lazio and beat Federico Marchetti, but crashed the ball into the crossbar.

4. Carlos Tevez vs. Parma

You don't often see a slaloming, Messi-style run in Serie A. The league is so tactically focused and defensively disciplined that the room for them simply isn't there the way it is in La Liga and other leagues.

So when it does happen, you take notice.

Carlos Tevez's wonder-run in Juve's demolition of Parma certainly made people take notice.

Tevez beat Andrea Costa to a loose ball inside his own half and charged toward goal. After turning Alessandro Lucarelli around in a circle, he slipped through a lame tackle attempt by Felipe and reconnected with the ball after going around the Brazilian's back. He struck it as soon as he reached it. The shot was so hard that Mirante barely moved, and the entire move sent Ray Hudson into one of his trademark fits.

It was Juve's fourth goal of the game and the first of two for Tevez, propelling him to the top of the Serie A scoring chart.

3. Arturo Vidal vs. Cagliari

Arturo Vidal has endured a rough season. He suffered a knee injury in March, and his recovery was interrupted by his participation in the World Cup with Chile. The injury has lingered. Clearly not 100 percent, Vidal has not been the man he has been over the last three seasons with Juve.

There were increasing calls for Vidal's benching, and his inconsistent play wasn't doing anything to silence them.

Until, that is, Juve took on Cagliari in the last game before the winter break.

Vidal looked his old self on December 18. His passing was crisp, his tackling was sure, and he was a menace in front of goal. What really opened eyes, though, was the stunning strike that put Juve 2-0 up.

A cross from Patrice Evra on the flank was flailed at by Marco Capuano and popped into an open area on the left channel about 22 yards from goal. Vidal came flying in and caressed a first-time shot into the net, rooting Alessio Cragno to his spot.

In lieu of his normal goal celebration—the somewhat ubiquitous heart symbol made with the thumb and forefinger—the midfielder instead pointed to the nameplate on the back of his jersey. The implication was clear—the real Vidal was still here.

2. Leonardo Bonucci vs. Roma

The matchup between Juventus and Roma on October 5 in Turin was absolutely massive. It matched the two best teams in the league, first and second, both unbeaten and level on points. They so far outclassed the rest of the league that even at that early stage, a win could be decisive.

Unfortunately, the match didn't live up to its hype. Referee Gianluca Rocchi had one of the worst games of an already spotted officiating career, awarding Juve two questionable penalties and Roma one for an incident far off the ball.

As the clock bore down on 90 and it looked more and more like Italy's juggernauts would finish on level terms, the Bianconeri showed the grit and determination that has won them three straight championships.

As the game ticked into the 86th minute, Carlos Tevez won a corner for the home side. Tevez took it short and received a return pass. He had room to line up a cross and did so. It was headed out by Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and floated out toward the penalty arc. It was met there by Leonardo Bonucci. The center-back—who has rapidly emerged as a leader this year—met the ball on the volley and beat Lukasz Skorupski low and to the Polish keeper's right.

Roma would later argue that two Juve players in offside positions were blocking Skorupski's line of sight, but further angles showed that this was probably one of the better calls Rocchi made in an otherwise utterly forgettable performance.

The three-point lead that Juve currently holds over the Giallorossi can be traced directly to Bonucci's volley.

1. Andrea Pirlo vs Torino

The Derby della Mole isn't as well known as the Derby della Madonnina or the Derby d'Italia. But Turin's local grudge match is always an intense contest, and in recent years, it's been rare to see 22 men on the field by the final whistle.

The latest edition of the Derby, played on the last day of November, was no exception. Played for the most part in a driving rainstorm, the Bianconeri—who have dominated the matchup since the mid-1990s—went ahead on an Arturo Vidal penalty on the quarter hour. But only seven minutes later, Bruno Peres potted a stunning solo goal that beat Marco Storari and marked the first time Torino had even scored in the fixture since 2002.

Juve looked slack and spent the majority of the second half either defending a surprisingly lively Granata attack or cycling the ball around the attacking third, looking for openings that never came.

One of those looks, in the latter stages, was a lay-off to Andrea Pirlo, who skied the ball well high and wide. It wasn't necessarily a surprise—Pirlo hadn't scored from open play in two years—but it told the tale of the futility with which Juve attacked. If even the great Pirlo—who was having his best game of the season after struggling for full fitness for much of the year—couldn't find a way through, it looked like Torino would be taking home their first point in the derby in six years.

The change came all at once. Two minutes and 47 seconds into three minutes of stoppage time, Patrice Evra won the ball back from the Granata in the attacking half and forwarded it to substitute Alvaro Morata. Morata squared the ball to Vidal, who was instantly surrounded by maroon shirts. The Chilean laid the ball back to an onrushing Pirlo.

With seven seconds left, Pirlo connected with a first-time shot from nearly 30 yards away. Two seconds later, it had skipped off the rain-slicked grass and past the outstretched hand of Jean-Francois Gillet.

The Juventus Stadium erupted. Torino's players could only watch, stunned. What looked like a golden opportunity for Roma to gain ground on Juve suddenly became nothing more than maintaining the status quo.

The goal spawned a hysterically funny video from Juve's web site and extended Juve's winning streak to six in all competitions. For its importance to its game and the emotional reaction it sparked throughout the team's fanbase, this truly was the team's best goal of the season so far.