juventus      Juventus                                                      7-0                                               Parma          parma

Llorente 24, 36 (J), Lichtsteiner 29 (J), Tevez 50, 58 (J), Morata 76, 88 (J)


Serie A  – Week 11  [9th November 2014]  – Juventus Stadium

Allegri’s Juve shines high after a thrilling and extremely important 3-2 Champions League win over the visiting Greeks of Olympiacos. With much conversation and excitement around today’s match against Parma in the cold and rainy conditions of Turin as Max Allegri seems to be moving closer and closer to a permanent switch to a four-man-defense. Much like Tiberius succeeding the great Augustus, Massimiliano Allegri has adopted Conte’s Juve with firm hands and has made it his own. Despite the confusion and even anger after a “disappointing” transfer market from Beppe Marotta and co, today the “little soldiers” and the great depth of Juventus prevailed in immaculate fashion over a very weak Giallolblu side.

In a game with no shortage of history between the two sides–a rivalry that has seen the exchange of a number of legendary players such as Buffon, Cannavaro and Thuram–there was certainly a massive gap in class today. With only 6 points achieved in their first 11 games of the season, The Crusaders of Parma are in a massive crisis, a wound that had pounds of salt poured in it by the not-so-sweet Old Lady, taking full advantage of a very poor Emilia-Romagna representative.

The match began with pure dominance and Allegri’s 4-3-2-1 looked brilliant right from the start. The defense was incredible in the rare occasions that they were tested, which seemed non-existent. The midfield was brilliant and Romulo was able to show his worth and the attack, well, they did no shortage of attacking. It took Juventus only 23 minutes to get off the mark through a rocketing shot from Paul Pogba, which was blocked by Mirante and fell to the feet of Llorente. Llorente cool, calm and collected chipped the ball over the Parma goalkeeper and towards his far post, shaking the inside netting and giving The Bianconeri a well-deserved 1-0 lead. Juventus did not take their foot off the gas and immediately regained possession from the opposing kickoff, again attacking with force and only 6 minutes later, Stephan Lichtsteiner looked up with his fierce Swiss-eyes at the goal, lined up his shot and like a heat-seeking missile nicking off the post and stretching the back of the net for a goal of the season contender. With the score now at 2-0, it was obvious Juventus were in the driving seat and seemingly with no other cars on the road.

After a slow start to the season, Llorente is again showing why he was a fan favorite last season and after the 36th minute mark, he was able to double his tally as Lichtsteiner found space in the opposition’s 18-yard-box. The world was still for a slight moment as the Parma defense and Mirante had one thought in mind, surely Lichtsteiner was to shoot again. Instead, Lichtsteiner in his new Right-Back role swung in a beautiful cross over the bamboozled Parma defense to find the giant Spaniard’s strong foot, slotting it into the vacant Parma goal, making the score 3-0 after only a little over a half hour. The remaining minutes of the first half ended with more Juventus dominance and possession, but the score would remain 3-0 after the first 45 minutes with smiles and songs surrounding the Juventus Stadium.

The second half saw Parma manager, Roberto Donadoni take off former Juventus Left-Back, De Ceglie–who scored both goals in Parma’s 2-0 win over Inter–in favor for Massimo Gobbi, an ironic name to enter the Juventus Stadium. Unfortunately for The Gialloblu, Gobbi’s entrance would not halt Juventus’ terrorizing reign or help Parma soften the blow as it only took 5 minutes after the start of the second half for Carlitos Tevez to get his name on the score sheet. In a run that was eerily similar to that of The Apache’s fellow countrymen, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, Tevez, too was able to score one of the most exhilarating and magical goals of his career. Tevez darted through the middle of the pitch towards goal, shaking off one defender, but was quickly challenged by two more. The Apache kept going and as if the defenders were training cones, shook-off another and dribbled right around the next. Incredibly, Tevez had just single-handedly taken on the entire Parma defense, looked up, saw Mirante, and slotted the ball right past him, leaving the Italian goalkeeper speechless and frozen in his stance. The score was now a whopping 4-0 after 50 minutes and the atmosphere around the home of Juve had exploded with joy.

Everyone was playing with passion and having fun against a side that was allowing space and not so threatening in attack. Everyone was doing their part, even Gigi Buffon was forced to make a great save at one point in the match. Most would have feared the worst in recent years had Antonio Conte drastically changed the formation, Pirlo hurt and Vidal suspended, starting Bonucci in a four-man-defense with Padoin starting on the left flank, but it has been incredibly comforting seeing the amount of depth this team has shown this season.

Today, the players were not totally satisfied with a 4-0 lead and again, Tevez was able to double his tally like Llorente did and put a fifth past Mirante, causing one to almost feel bad for the growing Italian shot-stopper. More was to come his way, however, as Tevez exited the pitch to make room for the 18-year-old wonder kid, Kingsley Coman. With more dominance, Allegri wanted to give Morata a chance to get on the score sheet, taking off Llorente to a standing ovation in doing so. Something clicked as the two Juventus youngsters linked up in the 76th minute as Coman lobbed a short pass over the defense to find Morata’s run who settled the ball well and slotted it right past Mirante, who seemed to turn to stone in the process.

After goal number six, Allegri was feeling generous with his young talent and took off Claudio Marchisio (who played very well, winning 5 balls in the match) and replaced him with 19-year-old Primavera stud, Federico Mattiello. As if the 68% possession and 6 goal lead wasn’t enough for The Old Lady, Morata again found himself at the receiving end of a beautiful ball and made it 7-0 on a perfect volley with the instep of his strong foot.

Not often do we see Juventus trash teams like this, but it sure is pretty when they do. With a new formation and some new faces on the starting XI, The Bianconeri sent out a message to the rest of the Serie A and to its remaining two Champions League contestants, Malmo and Atletico Madrid. With three points won and secured, Juventus sit on top of the table for another week before facing Lazio on November 22nd at the Stadio Olimpico.


 Statistics

foot12 Man of the Match: Tevez
foot14 Corners 5 foot07 Total Shots:  22
foot13 Flop of the Match: N/A foot05 Pass Accuracy: 91% foot01 Ball Possession:  68%
foot11 Fouls: 3 foot00 Shots on Target:   11 foot08 Formation:  4-3-1-2

Player Ratings:

Click here to view


 

Formation:


Lineups:

juventus  Juventus: Buffon; Lichtsteiner, Bonucci, Chiellini, Padoin; Romulo, Marchisio (Mattiello 82), Pogba; Pereyra, Tevez (Coman 59); Llorente (Morata 71)

parma   Parma: Mirante; Felipe, Lucarelli, Costa, Rispoli, Acquah, Lodi, Mauri (Mariga 54), De Ceglie (Gobbi 46); Cassano (Belfodil 64), Ghezzal

 


Video Highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W13apHe61jc