Juventus eased past Parma 2-1 at the Juventus Stadium on Wednesday night in Serie A.
Carlos Tevez bagged a brace in the first half whilst Cristian Molinaro grabbed Parma’s only goal with a well hit volley.
In a balanced opening 15 minutes, the first half chance fell to the away side, as Gabriel Paletta’s cross evaded everyone and was well saved by Gianluigi Buffon before Juventus mustered their first attempt on goal via a counter attack which was thwarted by an offside Fernando Llorente.
The deadlock was broken however in the 25th minute by Serie As joint top scorer Carlos Tevez who latched on Andrea Pirlo’s through ball which hadn’t been fully dealt with by Paletta, before bearing down on the Parma goal and finishing across the face of goal despite a touch from goalkeeper Antonio Mirante.
The goal began to give Juventus more confidence and not long after the opening goal, Paul Pogba chipped a ball onto the head of Llorente but his header was comfortably saved by Mirante.
It wouldn’t take long for the second goal to come though, and it was the Argentinean once more. Tevez laid the ball off to Arturo Vidal who’s shot was well saved by Mirante, however the ball fell kindly for Tevez who tucked home his second just 32 minutes in.
Parma’s early confidence thus faded as Juventus were able to calmly stroke the ball around the pitch and nearly added a third five minutes before the end of the half as Pogbas low hit cross was well stopped by Felipe as the cross look destined to set up an easy tap in for the Spaniard Llorente.
Juventus were able to close out the first half comfortably acquiring 57 percent possession of the ball.
The second half started as the Bianconeri meant to go on, with Leonardo Bonucci heading the first chance of the half into the hands of Mirante.
However in the 61st minute, the former Juventus man Molinaro volleyed beautifully past Buffon just inside the penalty area to throw Parma a lifeline and bring the game back to life.
Just two minutes later Parma’s revival was cut short as another former Juventus man, Amauri, was sent off after catching Giorgio Chiellini with a stray arm whilst contesting a header.
From then on Juventus had the better of the chances. Llorente rounded Mirante but was unable to apply the finish and the two-goal man Carlos Tevez had a number of optimistic shots easily saved as the match looked to have petered out.
Although Molinaro was denied in a goal mouth scramble in the dying moments but Buffon saved well amidst penalty claims as Juventus claimed the victory.
The result signalled Juventus’ 15th consecutive home win, a new record in Serie A usurping the previous record held by Torino gained in 1975-1976. The scoreline also meant Parma’s 17 match unbeaten run came to an end against the team who last beat them back in November.
