Juventus | Juventus v Palermo

Juventus made short work of Palermo and are clear at the top of the table despite having a game in hand.

The Bianconeri had not played in three weeks, as their trip to Napoli was postponed due to flooding. Juve had a taboo to face down, as Palermo had won their last three visits to Turin. However, this season the Rosanero had a dismal away record and were missing strikers Mauricio Pinilla and Abel Hernandez, so Fabrizio Miccoli was the unusual centre-forward choice.

Andrea Pirlo ran rings round the defenders to chip a cross that Giorgio Chiellini nodded wide from six yards, while Claudio Marchisio didn’t take advantage of an Alexander Tzorvas error.

However, Palermo had a great chance when Josip Ilicic was left totally unmarked down the left channel, but Gigi Buffon came flying off his line to parry the chip with one strong hand.

Simone Pepe finally broke the deadlock after a well-worked move and Chiellini whipped a cross from the left for the winger to surprise Mauro Cetto and nod in.

It should’ve been 2-0, but Mirko Vucinic only scuffed his finish when running on to a Stephan Lichtsteiner through ball.

Pirlo burst through the middle with a give-and-go to release a right-foot curler that cracked against the upright with Tzorvas well beaten!

Buffon was again forced to rush off his line when Ilicic pounced on a Leonardo Bonucci error, but once again the Slovenian hesitated. Ilicic had another chance before half-time, but once more Buffon was ready for his left-foot strike on the counter.

Juventus doubled their lead just three minutes after the restart. Lichtsteiner’s through ball down the right released Alessandro Matri, whose right-foot angled drive beat Tzorvas at the near post.

Vucinic seemed to be having an off-day and wasted a few chances with either weak finishing or blasts over the bar. He did have a good opportunity when curling a right-foot shot across the face of goal to skim the post.

Miccoli’s free kick clipped the wall, but it was 3-0 as Matri’s smart dummy let a Vucinic low pass through for Marchisio’s precise angled drive down the right channel.

Vucinic’s last contribution to the game was a lob on to the roof of the net from an improbable angle.

Fabio Quagliarella and Alessandro Del Piero were allowed a run-out, but the game was essentially over by this point. Del Piero’s shot was charged down and Arturo Vidal clattered into the goalkeeper when trying to get on the end of it.