19 September 2015
Juventus’ Primavera claimed a 1-1 draw in this afternoon’s Turin derby courtesy of a second-half strike by Luca Clemenza.
In an evenly-matched first half, the Bianconeri had their first proper effort on goal when Mattia Vitale collected Pol Lirola’s cross in the 17th minute but his shot was blocked by the hosts’ rearguard.
Exactly 17 minutes later, the visitors came even closer to taking the lead, but Simone Muratore could not keep his effort down following fine build-up play between Andrea Favilli, Vitale and Guido Vadalà.
Towards the end of the opening period, Torino grew increasingly dangerous and threatened to score when Leonardo Candellone was almost presented with an open goal, and they eventually found a way past Juve keeper Leonardo Vitali thanks to Gabriel Debelijuh’s deft finish on the stroke of half-time.
Shortly after the break, Fabio Grosso made a couple of attacking substitutions, replacing Vadalà and Vitale with King Udoh and Clemenza respectively.
And the changes would ultimately pay dividends in the 71st minute when the latter brought a smart save out of Torino stopper Andrea Zaccagno, with Favilli reacting quickest to steal the ball back off the defence and feed it straight to Clemenza, who buried home to the delight of the away support.
The equaliser sparked a lively finale and, as both sides pushed for a winner, Udoh sneaked in behind Torino’s backline, but was stopped in his tracks for offside.
The result gives the Bianconeri a point that sees them occupy fourth place in the table after just two fixtures, while their city rivals sit below them after picking up their second consecutive draw of the season.
Speaking to Sportitalia at the end of the match, Clemenza explained how he and his team-mates had set out to claim maximum points from the contest, even after conceding the first goal.
He began: “We came back out after the break with the right approach, as we looked to make it 2-1, but unfortunately we couldn’t quite get the winner.
“We were unfortunate to trail 1-0 going into half-time, as we were on top certainly from a tactical perspective, albeit we had to dig deep in terms of fitness.”
His manager concentrated on the positives of a convincing performance against last year’s champions, which bodes well for the rest of the campaign.
“I’m satisfied with the display, especially how we took the game to them,” said Grosso. “Despite occasionally being vulnerable on the counter-attack, we played well generally and showed that we’re capable of achieving great things this year.”
