Hope you made extra coffee for this one, because it may have come in handy. Palermo have been one of Serie A's worst sides on the season, and Juventus have been Juventus, so this looked like a terrible mis-match from the start. With manager Giuseppe Iachini facing the ax if he lost, Palermo desperately needed to get something out of this match, but given that they were facing the three-time defending champion in Turin, it never looked good.
Juventus vs. Palermo, Final Score 2-0: Juve stroll past dull Palermo
Palermo’s struggles this season continue as they barely troubled their hosts on the way to yet another loss.
Tullio M. Puglia
As the match wore on, it looked steadily less and less good for Palermo. Juventus weren’t looking at their best, but they were still easily controlling the match while Palermo desperately raced around trying to figure out what they could do. Early on, Juve were getting all the chances, marauding in to the final third seemingly at will when Palermo could barely get the ball out of their own half.
The visitors did create some danger off a counterattack when Franco Vazquez lashed a shot just over the bar, then again was just over with a header from a corner moments later. It was Juventus who scored the opening goal, though, with a lovely and well-worked move that steadily moved the ball across the face of Palermo's defense until an unmarked Arturo Vidal arrived on a back-post run to hammer the ball home.
For the rest of the first half and most of the second, things continued much as they had been: Juve in control and occasionally making a concerted effort to try and score, and Palermo just kind of flailing around. If Palermo fans were looking for signs that things were about to turn around for their club, this wasn’t it.
It only got worse at the hour mark. Fernando Llorente, he of the season-long struggles for Juve, almost connected on a Tevez cross in the box, only for the ball to get knocked back for a corner. He wasn’t going to be denied a second time, though, getting on the end of the corner and blasting it in to the back of the net for his first goal of the season.
After that, neither team really seemed to care much. There was lots of punting back and forth. Sebstian Giovinco hit the post with a shot. Paulo Dybas tried to score from 40 yards out, but Gianluigi Buffon was having none of that. The most notable incident came with about seven minutes to go; Leonardo Bonucci cleared a ball out of the defense and just kind of crumpled over. As Juventus had already used all three subs by then, he couldn’t be subbed out, so he elected to gut it out and stay in. Something clearly wasn’t right with Bonucci, though, and Juve fans will be holding their collective breath until more is known about their defender’s condition.
With this result, Juventus have now won twenty-three matches in a row at home, and Palermo are sinking further and further away from relevance. While they certainly have the talent to do well in Serie A, something just isn’t “clicking” for Palermo at a tactical level right now. Maybe fixing that means getting rid of Iachini, or perhaps just his hat. Either way, the end result is that even with a patchwork lineup and not showing a ton of their normal conviction, Juventus were able to win easily today.
Juventus: Buffon; Ogbonna, Bonucci, Chiellini; Pereyra (Lichtsteiner 52'), Vidal, Pirlo (Pogba 65'), Marchisio, Asamoah; Llorente, Tevez (Giovinco 79')
Goals: Vidal 32’, Llorente 63’
Palermo: Sorrentino; Munoz, Gonzalez, Andelkovic; Pisano, Bolzoni, Barreto (Belotti 59'), Feddal; Rigoni (Maresca 73'); Dybala, Vazquez (Quaison 80')
Goals: none
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