Juventus may go into Sunday’s Derby della Mole with Torino knowing that a victory against their city rivals could clinch the Scudetto.
In a fixture that is already alluring, Italy’s eyes will excite themselves switching between Rome and Turin. With Roma due to play at Inter on Saturday evening, the Vecchia Signori will know before kick-off if they can clinch the title at the Stadio Olimpico, as they will need to win and both Roman sides lose in order to do so.
It will be the 140th Serie A meeting between the two and the Bianconeri hold a heavy advantage. They have 64 wins to their host’s 34 and even hold a 10 win swing in the away leg of the fixture. A great number of those victories have come in recent meetings, something made painfully apparent to Granata supporters when they note that the 20th anniversary of Torino’s last derby victory has recently passed; history heavily favours the visitors.
The meeting at the Juventus Stadium was a tight affair; an Arturo Vidal penalty gave the Bianconeri the advantage, but Bruno Peres’ meisterwerk gave Torino their first derby goal since 2002 and looked to have clinched a point until a last second thunderbolt from Andrea Pirlo snatched victory.
Yet both sides go into this derby in good form. As well as progressing against Monaco in the Champions League, Juventus have been imperious in Serie A. Since defeat at Genoa in October, they have lost just once (mystifyingly at Parma) in 22 games and have won 15 of those.
Torino have hardly been slumping during that time, however, with only two defeats in the 18 games since the last derby, though those 16 matches have been split equally between wins and draws.
Juventus striker Carlos Tevez goes into the game as Serie A’s leading scorer with 18 goals to his name, while Fabio Quagliarella leads Giampiero Ventura’s side on 11 – the second season in a row Torino’s leading scorer has joined from Juventus.
Massimiliano Allegri goes into the game with local boy made good Claudio Marchisio suspended, while Paul Pogba and Kwadwo Asamoah are both likely to miss out through injury. Meanwhile, Ventura’s squad are virtually without blemish – with Gaston Silva unlikely to add to his two appearances to date.
Form Guide: Torino (D-D-W-W-L-L), Juventus (W-L-W-W-W-W)
Expected Starting XIs
Torino: Padelli; Bovo, Glik, Moretti; Bruno Peres, Vives, Gazzi, El Kaddouri, Darmian; Maxi Lopez, Martinez.
Juventus: Buffon; Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini; Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Pirlo, Pereyra, Evra; Tevez, Morata.
