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Friday night lights at the Stadium

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Friday night lights at the Stadium
Friday night lights at the Stadium
Friday night lights at the Stadium

What could be better than heading to Juventus Stadium after work on a Friday to watch the reigning champions?

The visit of Palermo in two days’ time will mark the third such opportunity for Bianconeri supporters, with the previous two yielding important league victories in March 2016 and February 2015 against Sassuolo and Atalanta respectively.

Entertainment was not in short supply on either occasion, not least for the quality of the goals scored in both games.

Beginning with the former, Juve fans were treated to one of the strikes of the season from Paulo Dybala, whose superb curling effort from the right edge of the penalty area was pipped to the post by Simone Zaza in our end of year awards, if only by way of its slightly lesser importance in the context of the campaign.

That night, Massimiliano Allegri’s men were celebrating not only the latest of Paulo’s deadly finishes but perhaps more significantly a 10th consecutive Serie A clean sheet, a new record for the Italian top-flight, and an 18th win in 19 matches.

Just over a year beforehand, it was up to the previous holder of Juventus’ number 21 jersey to supply the Friday night magic. Early goals from Atalanta’s Giulio Migliaccio and Fernando Llorente looked set to keep the Bianconeri and the Nerazzurri deadlocked at least until the break after a keenly contested first 45 minutes, il Maestro however had other ideas.

Pirlo’s dipping, swerving shot was good enough to win any game.

Way back when...

The Old Lady’s most important pre-weekend appointment was however to be found in May 1997, away from the walls of Juventus Stadium.

Brought forward to accommodate the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund the following week, Marcello Lippi’s men headed to Bergamo knowing that one point would be enough to seal a 24th Scudetto title.

An early Filippo Inzaghi goal threatened to tear up the title script only for Mark Iuliano to head home from close range 10 minutes after half time to put our name on the trophy with one league game to spare.

While a seventh Friday success would not have the same immediate affect on the race to the Scudetto this time around, it would send the Bianconeri into next week’s Champions League trip to Porto on the back of six consecutive league wins and with a minimum seven-point advantage over their nearest rivals. Plenty to play for.

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