Juventus v Torino - Niggly, tactical match expected

European Leagues / Dan Fitch / 25 February 2008 / Leave a Comment

Dan "The Betting Man" Fitch has a look ahead at the Turin Derby on Betfair Live Video and tells us why Pavel Nedved and co will have to be at their best to get the three points

As a Spurs supporter, I know as well as anybody that when you live in the shadow of your local rivals, you tend to hang onto the little things. We used to be able to claim that Arsenal played boring football, but now that they score the sort of goals that are normally only seen on Pro Evolution Soccer, this tag no longer washes.

So now we rib them about having no English players, being incredibly bad losers and having a stadium that's so quiet, you could hold the World Snooker Championships there.

Manchester City fans exercise their inferiority complex, by accusing Manchester United fans of not actually coming from Manchester. This is an especially effective jibe, as it annoys the true United fans that are based in the Manchester area and shames the glory hunters from Torquay.

The same tactic is used by Torino fans, in reference to their local rivals, Juventus. Though established as a European superpower, Juventus fail to attract massive crowds to their home games (unlike United). Their average home attendance is only around 35,000, yet their demand for away tickets is very high.

Tuesday night sees Juventus play host to Torino in the Derby della Mole, or the Turin Derby for those of us that aren't James Richardson. Like most derbies, it's traditionally a bad tempered affair, on and off the pitch.

It's also a competitive one. Despite Juventus' domination of Torino since the air tragedy that wiped out the Grande Torino side that had won five back to back Serie A titles, Torino have held their own in this fixture. From the 164 times that the rivals have met in Serie A, Juventus have won 64 to Torino's 51, with 49 draws.

Both teams come into this fixture on the back of an indifferent result. Having won their home game two Sundays ago, at home to Roma, Juventus only needed a point away at lowly Reggina to leap into second spot.

Juventus went into the game without Gianluigi Buffon, David Trezeguet and Vincenzo Iaquinta. The depleted team looked out of sorts, as Reggina took the lead in the first half. A goalkeeping error allowed Del Piero to equalise with twenty minutes remaining and it looked as if the game was going to play out as a draw. However, Juventus were counting without the referee, who awarded Reggina a very dubious penalty in the last minute, when Sissoko attempted a bicycle kick, but wad adjudged to have played more of Nicola Amoruso's head than the ball.

The penalty was duly converted and the Juventus players predictably went crazy at the referee. So much so that Christiano Zanetti was sent off after the final whistle. Referees certainly are a lot more annoying when you can no longer bribe them to do whatever you want.

Torino were involved in a thrilling four all draw with Parma, despite being 4-1 down at one point to the relegation strugglers. Torino had taken the lead through Robero Stellone, which merely seemed to aggravate Parma, who quickly notched four goals of very high quality.

Torino pulled one back through Natali just before half time, before reverting to all out attack in the second half. They were rewarded when Stellone got his second goal, before his flicked header was picked up by David Di Michele, who grabbed the equaliser with eight minutes to go. The fairytale comeback almost was completed when Nicola Ventola hit the bar for Torino in stoppage time.

Naturally Torino were delighted with the result, though perhaps they should be wondering quite how they were 4-1 down at home, to a side in the relegation zone. I don't expect the Juventus and Torino game to be quite so open, as with most derby games, you can expect niggling fouls to get in the way of flowing football.

Juventus are [1.61], with Torino [8.0] and the draw [3.8]. I expect a home win, allowing Juve to get back on track. However, in order to get the Turin bragging rights, they'll need to first actually have some fans in Turin.