Juventus’ tough spell continued in the Derby, as they mismanaged another lead and gifted two goals to the opponents. A confusing reaction in the final minutes yielded a tie, but a finish in the top four is now officially in peril.
Federico Chiesa (4 points): for about 70 minutes he look like the only attacker who was willing to put some effort into his actions and had some ideas on what to do with the ball.The play gravitated towards and he challenged the opposing defenders time and time again, often successfully. He inevitably bagged the first goal through a very tenacious mazing run and a technical finish right between the legs of the goalkeeper. The Bianconeri got little out of the other midfielders as Dejan Kulusevski was easily held in check, very timid overall and also committed a baffling mistake on the second Torino goal, sending towards the backline an inexplicable errand pass that got picked off.
Juan Cuadrado uncorked a high number of crosses but he was not sharp in either phase. Rodrigo Bentancur held in own in the midfield and had his hands full since Danilo was not dynamic at all next to him, so he had to cover a ton of ground. He almost slotted it in the bottom corner to complete an undeserved comeback, but Salvatore Sirigu just tipped it on the post. Aaron Ramsey and Adrien Rabiot did not have an impact off the bench.
Cristiano Ronaldo (4 points): it took him a while to get in the game but, despite the subpar showing, he tucked in an opportunistic goal to save face for his squad with a clutch deflection on a scrum in the box. He would have bagged a couple more if he was on his best day because, despite rarely getting the ball cleanly in the thick of it, he did leave something on the table on a pair of majestic headers, but only because he set the bar very high. Alvaro Morata interplayed pretty well with Chiesa in the first hour of the game, had a pair of scoring opportunities that were not easy to exploit and vanished on the late push.
Alex Sandro: the Old Lady continues to self-harm in the back and in this one it was the usually reliable Wojciech Szczesny that ended up being the goat of the match with a horrid central deflection on a central strike that was tapped in and an even worse save on what looked like a routine shot on his own post. The late interventions were not enough to atone himself. Matthijs De Ligt had to the plug a lot of holes and struggled to keep up with the opponents coming at him with a head of steam. Giorgio Chiellini was fine but he was visibly laboring at times and not the usual dominant self, a version that is rarer and rarer due to physical problems. Sandro gets a very weak nod just for a pair of dangerous deliveries from the flank.
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