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Few times this season has Carlos Tévez's Tour de Force in Serie A truly been stopped. There have been goals — lots of them. There have been assists — a team-high six of them. There's just been a whole lot of Tévez going on this season and only a small number of games this season has his impact been not been completely silenced by the opposition.
On Wednesday night at Juventus Stadium, we got the first part of the equation.
Translation: We got ourselves some Tevez goals.
Tevez was the difference against Serie A's other lengthy unbeaten run, as his first-half brace led Juve to a 2-1 win over Parma in Turin. Two more goals for a guy who has been scoring for fun in Serie A this season. And just when it looked like Ciro Immobile might enjoy more than just 24 hours atop the league's scoring chart, Tevez snatched the lead right back into his favor with his 17th and 18th goals of the season.
Sorry, kid. I still like you.
Juventus paid €9m for Tevez this summer. That's €2m less than Milan paid for Alessandro Matri. Just saying.
— Paolo Bandini (@Paolo_Bandini) March 26, 2014
Just sayin', guys.
In what ended up being a nervy ending — hey, haven't heard that about Juventus these past few weeks, right? — it was Tévez's goals that stood the tallest. That's the kind of player that Juventus was lacking in attack for the past few years. Sure, they had good strikers, but Tévez is more than just a good striker. He's got the No. 10, and he deserves to No. 10.
Just further confirmation that #Tevezmania is taking over Turin.
#Pogba: "We struggled a bit in the second half and late on, in spite of our numerical advantage. We can't let this happen again." #JuveParma
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) March 26, 2014
Amen, Paul.
Random thoughts and observations
- Eighteen goals and counting for Carlos Tevez this season. Here's your reminder that there's still nearly two months of the season left.
- But no Tevez against Napoli over the weekend because of the yellow card he picked up in the second half. :(
- Cristian Molinaro's first legit cross attempt from the left wing went flying into the stands. For a guy who has spent the past couple of years in Germany before making comeback to Italy this past January, it's like he never left.
And then he had to go and score a goal. That jerk. - Molinaro's goal ended what was a Juventus run of over 500 minutes without a goal. Even more impressive when you consider that 1) the team hasn't been playing well at all the past month or so; 2) the defense has been basically a revolving door because of the injury situation.
- Antonio Conte wears his classic hat, Juventus wins. It's simple science, folks.
- Roberto Donadoni's gonna be all like "#IBlameAmauri" isn't he? Or was Amauri so invisible during his time on the field that getting a red card didn't matter at all?
- Gigi Buffon wasn't too busy on Wednesday night, making only two official saves against Parma. But man oh man, both of those saves were huge — especially the second one, which was followed by some absolute mayhem in the penalty area. In a game that started out like it wouldn't have many heart attack-inducing moments, that one definitely took the cake.
