After midweek's disappointment against Sassuolo, Juventus bounced back in thrilling fashion with Juan Cuadrado stabbing home in the dying embers to give them a derby victory over Torino.

FORM

This Derby Della Molle found Torino over Juventus in the Serie A table which was something very unusual in recent times. The bianconeri have been struggling this season in the league while Torino had a decent start and were sitting two spots above the home team in the table.

Juventus had been improving since the defeat against Napoli when Claudio Marchisio and Sami Khedira came back from injury, but were defeated by Sassuolo away from home during midweek (coincidentally, those two players were absent due to Masimiliano Allegri’s rotation). Torino after a strong start have only got two points from the last twelve.

FIRST HALF AND OPENING GOAL

The match started with Juventus dominating possession but lacking a bit of creativity in the final third, something usual this season. Allegri switched to a back line of four with Simone Padoin as right back after Giorgio Chiellini’s red card on Wednesday. He also replaced Juan Cuadrado with Hernanes, which meant the bianconeri were back to the 4-3-1-2 they started the season with. The formation had to be altered soon as Khedira had to leave the pitch injured before the 10th minute with Cuadrado replacing him and Hernanes dropping a bit and playing as regista.

Juventus opened the score as a pass from Cuadrado found Paul Pogba who struck an amazing shot from twenty yards out and beat Padelli. This was Pogba’s first goal from open play this season, having scored against Genoa from the penalty spot. The Frenchman had been criticised as his form has been poor so far this season but today he showed glimpses of the player that made clubs offer almost $100 million for him.

EQUALISER AND AGONISING VICTORY

The first half ended with nothing more happening for either side. In the second one Torino started getting more confident and Juventus started to drop intensity and lose control of the game. From the rebound of a free kick Cesare Bovo found the equaliser from an outstanding volley that was equally as good if not better than Pogba’s earlier in the game.

After that Juventus started getting nervous and Torino started dominating and creating important chances. Two headers that came from set pieces almost gave them the lead but Gianluigi’s Buffon brilliance helped his side to stay in the game (in both cases against Glik). Only in the dying minutes the defending champions woke up and started pushing. In the 91st minute Leonardo Bonucci hit the crossbar after a great cross from Hernanes, it looked like it was the last chance of the game, but in the 93th minute Alex Sandro, who had just came in for Paulo Dybala, crossed the ball and found Cuadrado who only had to push the ball one metre away from the goal to give this his team the much needed victory. Just like last season, when Andrea Pirlo scored a screamer from outside the box in the 92nd minute, Juventus got the victory in the derby in the dying seconds and will hope it will be the kind of moral boost to kick off the season for good.