Post-Game Thread: Juventus Do Everything But Score A Goal

Since the Inter defeat, the general feeling was that Juventus were starting to get back to their best. Two games, two incredible beatdowns. Sure, the competition wasn't the best, but still. Look at what they did. Any team would have loved to score 10 goals in two games.

This, however, was also something we've seen from last season.

Juventus dominated Lazio in almost every statistical category there is.

Possession: 60 percent to 40 percent in favor of Juventus. Lazio were out-shot 21 to 5. It was so one-sided at Juventus Stadium, Gigi Buffon practically stole a game check simply because Lazio didn't have one single shot on goal. Again, something we saw a lot of last season — especially towards the end of the year.

But, even with the dominance, Juventus couldn't break the deadlock. A lot of it had to do with the man I'll talk about in a few paragraphs, some of it had to do with Juve not taking complete advantage of some quality opportunities that were presented to them. How many times did Sebastian Giovinco find himself with a scoring chance only to see a shot go wide or get saved?

It wasn't like Juventus sucked at all. They were very good — except when it came to finding the back of the net. And, of course, people will point their finger at Beppe Marotta for not getting a top striker. That's just the nature of the business, I guess. But here's the thing: This game was never going to be easy. Lazio are playing well and their spot in the table reflects that. But when your team thoroughly dominates like Juventus did today, you can't but help have a feeling that these were three points that definitely got away.

Dammit. I'm going to go bash my head against the wall some more. Anybody else

My Man of the Match: The Goalkeper Bias card is being played and I don't care — Federico Marchetti. While Gigi Buffon didn't have a damn thing to do all night, Marchetti was the sole reason why Lazio got a point. Sure, he had a handfull of routine saves, but he also had three or four absolutely miraculous ones that kept the shutout alive. I've always like Marchetti, but I don't like when he does his best impression of the guy playing in the other goal whenever Lazio faces Juve, dammit.

Wait. Nobody from Juventus? Okay, fine.

My Juventus Man of the Match: Arturo Vidal — because this was the Arturo Vidal we all know and love. It wasn't just the fact that he had an 88 percent pass completion rate or the fact he had three times as many tackles — nine — as anybody on Lazio not named Giuseppe Biava. It was just the simple execution of everything he did. He was stuck on Hernanes lik white on rice (yes, I went there). Just a classic Vidal kind of game. And with Chelsea coming to town in 72 hours or so, having King Arturo back in fine form is so huge.