29 October 2015
Saturday evening’s Derby della Mole will be the first ever to be contested on 31 October, the fixture had previously only fallen within six days of the Autumn festivities in 2008, so although there is little Halloween history between the cross city rivals, Juve do go into the encounter with a formidable All Saints Day record.
To honour the occasion, Juventus.com flicks through the archives to relive eight such matches to coincide with the holiday.
The 2000s
The last time the Old Lady braved leaving her front door on Halloween night came just three years ago for the visit of Bologna.
With the rain atmospherically lashing the turf in Turin, Paul Pogba’s header at the death from Sebastian Giovinco’s excellent left-wing cross cancelled out Sapher Taider’s well hit equaliser to ensure there were to be no Juventus Stadium scares on the night.
Juve also kept their cool five years earlier to see off the challenge of Empoli thanks to a stellar second-half showing from David Trezeguet at the Stadio Olimpico.
After an evenly contested opening 45 minutes, Re David emerged from the darkness of the tunnel with a vengeance, making his mark on the encounter moments after the interval, blasting in from the penalty spot having been fouled by Empoli goalkeeper Daniele Belli. Trezegol pounced once again shortly afterwards, this time thumping home an unstoppable header at the near post.
With the away side running for the hills, the Frenchman completed his hat trick with 20 minutes remaining, pouncing on Belli’s spillage in the box to wrap up the points for Claudio Ranieri’s men.
Eerily, Juve were victors by the same 3-0 scoreline in 2004 against Chievo, the scoring services provided that time by Marcelo Zalayeta, Pavel Nedved and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The 1990s and beyond
The quirk of playing on the eve of the club’s anniversary was to crop up just twice in the 1990s, both resulting in Bianconeri wins.
The men to swoop and snaffle up the points were Alessandro Del Piero in a 1-0 triumph over Piacenza in 1999 and Messrs Roberto Baggio (three) and Andreas Moller six years beforehand, Genoa the victims on that occasion.
Venturing deeper into the mists of time, Halloween was to prove a night of treats on a further pair of instances in the 1970s courtesy of 3-0 and 4-1 victories over Catanzaro (1976) and Milan (1971) respectively.
Just one special trick from Roberto Bettega for Juventini to remember from those encounters:
Speaking of tremendous Juventus Stadium nights and the Derby della Mole however, there was only one man who could have written the latest chapter of the Bianconeri Halloween horror story.
Having spooked us in his post-match interview following Juve’s 4-1 over Catania on 1 November last year, Andrea Pirlo sent shivers down the spines of all present at the home of the champions with this electrifying last gasp winner over their cross-city rivals just 30 days later.
