Top Match Preview: Stage set for finest Turin derby in years
There is an irony of sorts to be found in the fact that the Derby della Mole has become less one-sided at precisely the time when Juventus are as dominant as they have ever been in Serie A since the 1930s. Torino’s restoration and the renewed competitiveness of this grand old rivalry has been one of the welcome developments in Italy’s top flight in recent times.
Juventus have always taken it seriously, even when it wasn’t much of a contest through the late 90s and much of the 2000s, but as with their encounters against Fiorentina, it always seemed to mean more to their opponents than it did to them. Games like the Derby d’Italia and the ones against Milan or whoever happened to be challenging them for the title, like Roma or Napoli during the `80s and again over the last five years commanded greater attention.
However, little by little the renaissance at Torino has got people to stand up and take notice, heightening the sense of anticipation around the Derby della Mole. Football in Turin arguably hasn’t been this good since the beginning of the `90s when both of the city’s clubs were reaching European finals. Statistically it has been Italy’s best football town every year for the last three years. If you combine their points what you’ll discover is that Juventus and Torino [436] have outperformed the likes of Roma and Lazio [414] and Milan and Inter [348] by a distance.
The gap isn’t entirely down to the champions either. Torino have played their part too, finishing above Milan and Lazio in two of the last three seasons. As a result, there has tended to be a little bit more belief in an upset when it has been their turn to come at the King. For instance, until the current campaign the Derby d’Italia had become a procession for Juventus as Inter were invariably a shambles. The same could be said of Milan whose win in October ended a run of nine straight defeats to the Old Lady.
Torino on the other hand made a better fist of their dust-ups with Juventus. They had their ‘cousins’ on the ropes in November 2013, when Bruno Peres equalised at the J Stadium. With it the momentum swung their way. But in the end Andrea Pirlo won it with a trademark free-kick in the 93rd minute. The boot he wore when he struck it is now an exhibit at Juventus’ Museum.
Incidentally Peres’ goal on that occasion was Torino’s first in the Mole for 14 years. Now you can laugh at that - it is remarkable - but hear me out because it genuinely was a historical breakthrough of sorts, representing light at the end of a long tunnel, for it did at the very least suggest Torino were getting closer to their first win against Juventus since 1995. That win finally came when the two teams faced each other again in mid-April of that season; just a few weeks after the 20th anniversary of the last time they beat their richer, more successful neighbours.
Matteo Darmian and Fabio Quagliarella were the heroes, writing their names in the history books. The significance of that win in Torino’s recent history shouldn’t be underestimated. After promotion, consolidation, and qualification for Europe for the first time in two decades, they needed to get the better of Juventus, at least for one day, to say that they were definitively back. And they are.
If a first win in 17 derbies could be defined as the climax of Giampiero Ventura’s five-year spell in charge, a genuine moment of fulfilment, the job of his successor Sinisa Mihajlovic is to ensure that days like these are not just a once-in-a-generation thing and that the club keeps moving forward. No one is deluding themselves into thinking there could be a power shift in Turin like, for instance, the one Joe Hart participated in back in Manchester where the rivalry between United and City did share some similarities with that between Juventus and Torino. The ambition is to make getting into Europe and beating their cousins a regular, more normal occurrence.
Torino fans believe Mihajlovic is the man to do just that. In a short space of time, he has made them one of Serie A’s great entertainers. Not many teams in Europe’s top five leagues average more goals-per-game than the Granata. Andrea Belotti is developing into a complete centre-forward. Just look at how he has scored his 10 goals this season: three have been with his left-foot, three with his right, three with his head and the other one was a penalty.
Only Gonzalo Higuain [27] has found the back of the net more often than Belotti [21] in Serie A this calendar year. To be honest, the Italy international has stolen his thunder so far this season and in respect of that, Torino have extended his contract until 2021, including a buy-out clause worth €100m, a figure bigger than the one Juventus paid Napoli to sign Higuain.
Torino are not dependent on Belotti though. Goals are coming from all angles. The wide players in particular have delighted. Iago Falque is scoring at a rate that we haven’t seen since the second half of his final season at Genoa. Another ex-Roma player Adem Ljajic is hitting his potential. The pair of them have been involved in 18 goals already this term and unsurprisingly Torino have been taking it in turns with Roma to be Serie A’s top scorers. You have to go all the way back to the days of the Grande Torino [1947-48] to find them make as prolific a start to the season as this one. They’re playing football that's great to watch under Mihajlovic. “We don’t like it when people say Torino are a team that fights and that’s it. All teams should fight [at the very least]. We’ve got our principles. We create. We’ve got the second best attack in Serie A. We’ve married talent with attitude.”
Despite the loss to Samp at the weekend, Torino are confident going into the Derby della Mole. Fans turned out in their droves on Wednesday to attend an open training session. They put on a show that surely must have stirred something within the Torino players. Unbeaten at home this season, the Granata know Juventus have been vulnerable immediately after playing in the Champions League. All of their three defeats this season have followed European commitments. Might there be another one on the cards this Sunday afternoon? Juventus had better be careful. Bolstered by the returns of Giorgio Chiellini, Alex Sandro and Paulo Dybala, we could even see Max Allegri deploy a trident with the Argentine as a 10 and Higuain and Mandzukic continuing their partnership. Imagine that! Make no mistake this season’s Mole has everything to be the most exciting in a long time.
