In the days leading up to the Turin derby, the usual cliches came out. Families were divided and local bragging rights at stake, but most of all the form book was flying out of the window. “It’s always a complicated game, in which the technical qualities of the teams get cancelled out,” said the former Juventus striker Fabrizio Ravanelli. The Torino midfielder Omar El Kaddouri agreed: “The derby is a match unto itself. The best or strongest team does not always win.”
Both men were talking rubbish. Such platitudes might hold true in a great many rivalries around the world, but not the Derby della Mole (so named after the Mole Antonelliana, an imposing building in Turin), a fixture which has been dominated by Juventus over the last two decades. Torino had not beaten the Bianconeri since 1995. They had not even scored in this fixture since 2002.
There was little reason to believe they would end either of those runs at Juventus Stadium on Sunday. Torino arrived with the second-worst scoring record in Serie A, having found the net seven times in 12 games. The Bianconeri boasted the stingiest defence in the division, having conceded four goals all season. They had also won 24 games in a row at home.
Even Torino’s own fans appeared to be resigned to defeat. On the eve of the game, the newspaper La Stampa reported that Torino supporters had taken up less than half of the 2,100 tickets they were allocated.
Who could blame them? Those supporters had seen their greatest hopes dashed last season, when a team featuring Ciro Immobile – who would finish as Serie A’s top scorer – and Alessio Cerci soared to a seventh-place finish, but still failed to turn the tide in this most one-sided of rivalries.
The lack of competitiveness has even dulled the sense of animosity over time. In an interview with Tuttosport before the game, Stefano Marchisio – father of the Juventus midfielder Claudio – talked about how he used to buy season tickets for both teams, despite himself being a die-hard supporter of the Old Lady. Torino were simply not good enough to engender any real hatred towards them.
Perhaps the Granata also reasoned that, if you can’t beat ’em, you really might as well join ’em. Three of Torino’s 11 starters on Sunday had played for Juventus, from Emiliano Moretti in defence to Amauri and Fabio Quagliarella up front.
It was a bold move by Giampiero Ventura to start both forwards, having often deployed Quagliarella as a lone striker this season. If the intention was to take the game to Juventus, it was doomed from the start. Right from the kick-off the champions swept forwards in waves. Their opening goal felt inevitable, even if it was a total gift.
Torino’s defenders had been warned by the referee Daniele Orsato – who went as far as providing a visual demonstration – not to raise their arms above their heads as Andrea Pirlo lined up a free-kick in the 13th minute. Inexplicably, El Kaddouri did precisely that. The ball struck his elbow, and Orsato pointed to the spot. Arturo Vidal converted the penalty twice, with his initial attempt getting chalked off because of encroachment from his team-mates.
Already, the game looked to be up. Torino lacked the tools to force their way back into a match against such dominant opponents. Juventus were missing Gigi Buffon but his replacement, Marco Storari, is no slouch. And besides, Torino would need to get the ball to their forwards in the first place to test him.
Or at least, that is what most of us assumed. Bruno Peres saw things differently. The wing-back, signed from Santos in the summer, has not been around long enough to feel weighed down by his team’s history in this fixture. The only thing holding him back was the knowledge he could not always rely on his colleagues. Against Sassuolo last week he had made a series of well-timed runs up the pitch, only to be let down by his team-mates’ errant passing.
This time he took matters into his own hands. Dispossessing Paul Pogba on the edge of his own area, Peres sprinted away from the Frenchman before also showing a clean pair of heels to Patrice Evra and Vidal as he thundered down the right flank. Reaching the edge of the Juventus area, he cut inside and crashed a violent shot across Storari and in off the far post.
Juventus Stadium was stunned to silence. Torino had not only ended their 12-year dry run in their fixture but done so with a goal of the season contender. Peres kept on running until he was stood in front of the away supporters’ enclosure, celebrating with those few fans of his club who decided to take up a ticket for the game.
His goal had arrived in the 22nd minute, and for the next 70 the derby stayed in the balance. Juventus continued to dominate possession but rarely threatened to score. Half-time came and went, and as the second half ticked on Torino grew in confidence, beginning to push for a winner of their own.
Juventus were briefly reduced to 10 men, as Stephan Lichtsteiner left the field to be treated for a head injury. The Swiss full-back then made the arrangement permanent, returning to the field just in time to chop down El Kaddouri and collect a second yellow card. Suddenly, with 12 minutes left to go, Juventus were there for the taking.
Torino had their chances. From a Juventus corner they counterattacked at speed, creating a three-on-one situation, only for a mishit pass to curtail the move. Peres tore away on another run down the right, but this time his low centre ran behind Amauri. Another move saw El Kaddouri fire straight at Storari from the edge of the box.
Lacking the guile of Cerci or ruthlessness of Immobile, they could not find a winning goal but at least they were on course to leave with a highly creditable draw. Until Andrea Pirlo intervened.
There were eight seconds left in the final minute of injury time when Vidal nudged the ball to his midfield team-mate more than 25 yards out. At least eight Torino players stood between Pirlo and the goal. None could stop the ball from arrowing off his foot and into the bottom corner. A more perfect first-time strike would be hard to imagine, and especially from a player who had not scored from open play in more than two-and-a-half years.
“It was a shot made in desperation,” confessed Pirlo. “But it went well and now we are happy. It is a beautiful thing to win a derby in the last second, when you are down to 10 men. A unique kind of satisfaction.”
And for Torino, a unique kind of misery. Seconds away from a draw that would – because of Peres’s extraordinary goal – have merited a place in club lore, now they have only the hollow sense of a chance missed. Even the fact of having ended a run of 12 years without scoring against Juventus is unlikely to provide too much solace.
Because for once, in the Turin derby, that form book truly did go out the metaphorical window. But the result, in the end, was the same.
Talking points and results
• Peres was not the only full-back to score a special goal this weekend. José Holebas danced past a pair of hapless Inter defenders before thrashing in Roma’s second goal in what became a 4-2 victory over Inter. This was an important win for the Giallorossi, keeping them within touching distance of Juve and washing away some of the frustration from Tuesday’s Champions League draw with CSKA Moscow. It was hard to know what to make of the game from Inter’s perspective. Roberto Mancini made the justified assertion that, “you can’t change everything in 10 days”, yet it is also true that he himself had stressed the need for a fast start on taking the job. Under his charge, the Nerazzurri have certainly showed some fight – coming back from a goal down to draw with Milan and beat Dnipro but the defence still looks just as much of a mess with a back four as it did with a three.
• Roma’s fourth goal in that game against Inter, a brilliant Miralem Pjanic free-kick, is also well worth revisiting.
• Occupying Italy’s third Champions League spot – at least until Napoli and Sampdoria play on Monday evening – are Genoa, who won 3-0 at Cesena, and whose away record this season (played 7, won 4, drawn 3) is bettered only by Juventus. And if their win over the struggling Seahorses was expected, then there was nevertheless a lovely symbolism to the fact one of the goals should be scored by Luca Antonelli. His father, Roberto, had scored in Genoa’s last win away to Cesena – all the way back in 1982.
• Go ahead and hit that Mario Gomez button, because he is back among the goals at last. The relief was writ large over the German striker’s face after he scored his first goal in eight months (many of those lost to injury, it must be said) during Fiorentina’s 4-0 rout of Cagliari. What a difference it would make to the Viola’s prospects for the remainder of this season if he could make this a regular habit.
• Is Jérémy Ménez a false nine, or a real nine? Most Milan fans will not really care, as long as he is scoring goals like he did against Udinese. But to Adriano Galliani, this seems to be a very important debate. “Enough of this legend of the false nine,” harrumphed the Milan vice-president. “Signor Ménez is a Signor 9. He is a No9.”
• Also on Galliani’s mind was the subject of goalline technology, after Adil Rami was denied a goal in the first half. Countless replays could not provide a definitive angle on whether his header had crossed the line, but that is the point in the technology, after all. “The fault is ours,”Galliani said. “Fifa allow the use of technology and we [in Italy] do not do it.”
• Four goals in four games for the Palermo striker Paulo Dybala, although it is good to see he is not buying into his own hype. The club’s president, Maurizio Zamparini had responded to speculation about the player’s future last week by valuing him at €42m. “That fee is a lie,” Dybala said. “There are not many players in the world worth that much, and as of today, I certainly am not one of them.”
• Brit-watch: Nothing to report. Both Ashley Cole and Micah Richards were unused subs.
Results: Cagliari 0-4 Fiorentina, Cesena 0-3 Genoa, Chievo 0-0 Lazio, Empoli 0-0 Atalanta, Juventus 2-1 Torino, Milan 2-0 Udinese, Palermo 2-1 Parma, Roma 4-2 Inter, Sassuolo 2-1 Verona
