Torino 0:1 Juventus - Bianconeri Scrape Through With A Controversial Goal

Back in the day, a hard-fought, somewhat lucky 1-0 win used to be Juve's bread and butter. Clean sheet always the first priority, an organized, focused 11 warriors on the field, and a slow but steady push towards that winning goal. It was rarely pretty, but those 1-0 wins demanded respect from opponents.

Today's Torino victory was quite similar to that, except that as usual the post-match talk has been about referees and the proverbial "Juventus is getting favors" and the whole world is against the smaller teams. Child please.

MATCH RECAP

In midweek, Conte gave one beautiful blue-eyed lion his first Serie A start of the season and the trend continued on the weekend. Giovinco, almost the exact opposite in figure than Llorente, partnered Carlos Tevez up front giving Mirko a rest. Pirlo also found himself on the bench with wonderkid Pogba playing the regista position in Juventus' midfield.

With Marchisio, Pogba, and Vidal in the middle, our team looked a lot more solid defensively. In addition, all three defenders were very good throughout the whole match and combined well to give Torino all of 0 shots on goal. Most fans probably feared that another mistake would happen and we would concede again, but the clean sheet was well warranted.

Offensively, it was really only Tevez that was going to make something happen. Giovinco, to his credit, moved a lot and tried to spread the field, but his touch wasn't quite there and he was often overpowered by defenders. Pogba started attacks well from the back, Vidal and Marchisio were always in support when needed, and it was only a matter of time before we broke the deadlock.

The sole winning goal came 10 minutes into the second goal from a corner kick. Bonucci headed the ball goalwards, Tevez redirected it at Torino's crossbar, and Pogba converted the deflection with a header of his own. Unfortunately, Bonucci's initial shot caught Tevez offside as seen in the replays, but the goal was allowed and Juventus used it well to get all three points.

Other notable moments in the match were a beautiful short-pass link up play between Tevez, Marchisio, and Giovinco, who managed to shoot straight at the keeper from super close range. Vucinic had an opportunity to score on a volley himself after coming on as a substitute, but Padelli saved his shot well.

LE PAGELLE

Buffon: 6.5 - As Danny would say, Gigi stole a check today.

Barzagli: 7 - Another very good game from Barzagli, though there wasn't much danger to deal with.

Bonucci: 7.5 - Stayed on the level of his compadres in the backline and kinda made the goal happen.

Chiellini: 7.5 - After being rested in midweek, he was back to his old fiery self. Physically dominating when necessary and beating everyone to the ball.

Lichtsteiner: 7 - Nothing notable from the Swiss, but he still gets a 7 for effort.

Pogba: 8 - Not my man of the match, but the young Frenchman had a really good game. His confidence is astounding - to marshall the Italian champion team at his age like he does with his passing is truly something. Loved his quick reflex to score the goal too.

Marchisio: 7 - His yellow card was disappointing - looked like he went the "professional foul" route really early in the play. Torino certainly did their best to get him sent off too but thankfully the ref didn't fall for it. Can he really become Juventus' Totti? He'll have to elevate his game and leadership on the field. He has plenty of work to do there.

Vidal: 7 - I really thought he was going to decide the game since Giovinco was the weak link in attack. He could've done more, though defensively he was key, as usual.

Asamoah: 6.5 - Another "meh" game from the Ghanaian. Other than the fact that we don't have anyone else better, I don't any other reason why he should be starting in that left wingback position.

Tevez: 8 - This man IS Juventus right now. He leads by example, he is Conte's perfect creation and fit for this team, and he plays with incredible determination on the field. You can't not love him. I feel bad for his injury from what should've been an Immobile red card, hoping he can at least give us 30 minutes against Galatasaray if we need him.

Giovinco: 6.5 - Worked his but off. He actually didn't have that bad of a game. Also, it was really his first real game this season, so I'll give him that. I don't think he'll ever be an important player for Juve, but he can hold his own against the weak teams if needed. He had a golden opportunity to score but couldn't really aim from close range.

Subs:

Padoin: sv - I feel like he can play 900 minutes and he still won't qualify for a rating or anything meaningful to be said about him.

Vucinic: 6.5 - Would've been awesome if he scored on the volley. He's come in as a sub two games in a row now, expect him to start against Galatasaray on Wednesday.

Quagliarella: sv - Though he should've been given a penalty!

Coach:

Conte: 6.5 - I think the small squad rotation is not enough to switch things up. We need a little more creativity, a bit more unpredictability to keep winning. It's easy to just say "our players have won 2 Scudetti in a row so they are lacking a bit determination."