Matthijs De Ligt’s first Juventus goal secures Turin derby win

Posted Sunday, November 03, 2019 by PA

Matthijs De Ligt’s first goal for Juventus clinched his side a 1-0 win against Torino in an enthralling Turin derby at the Olympic Stadium.

The Holland defender, a £67.5million summer signing from Ajax, lashed home the only goal midway through the second half as Juve finally found a way past inspired Torino goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu.

Juve extended their unbeaten start in all competitions this season to 14 matches and climbed back to the top of Serie A above Inter Milan.

FT | ⏱ | TURIN IS ⚪⚫!!!#ToroJuve #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/K7GSr5ZC8J
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) November 2, 2019

Torino’s winless run was extended to six games and cranks up the pressure on boss Walter Mazzarri, while defeat would have been by a bigger margin had it not been for Sirigu.

Torino centre-half Bremer’s header forced a decent early save from Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who then kept out Tomas Rincon’s shot from outside the penalty area.

Juve’s first chance on goal fell to Cristiano Ronaldo, who failed to keep his diving header down after meeting Rodrigo Bentancur’s cross.

Andrea Belotti was next to test Szczesny with another long-range effort before Ronaldo was off target again, with an angled right-footed shot after being teed-up by Miralem Pjanic.

Matthijs De Ligt’s first Juventus goal secures Turin derby win — Cristiano Ronaldo could not get past an inspired Salvatore Sirigu in the Torino goal (Alessandro Di Marco/AP)

Paulo Dybala showed neat footwork before his shot from the edge of the box was well saved by Sirigu, who came to the home side’s rescue twice more in first-half stoppage time.

Sirigu tipped Leonardo Bonucci’s goalbound header over the crossbar and from the subsequent corner clawed away De Ligt’s effort.

Ronaldo was foiled by another excellent save from Sirigu following Dybala’s clever through ball early in the second period.

Juve boss Maurizio Sarri sent on Gonzalo Higuain for Dybala on the hour-mark and Aaron Ramsey replaced Federico Bernardeschi 10 minutes later.

A DELIGTFUL DERBY WIN ⚪⚫!!!#ToroJuve #FinoAllaFine #ForzaJuve pic.twitter.com/vF3F1sdx1N
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) November 2, 2019

The substitutions paid dividends. Ramsey won a free-kick on the right and Higuain’s volley from Pjanic’s ball in was brilliantly pushed away by Sirigu.

Higuain then hooked the ball on from the resulting corner and De Ligt broke the deadlock, lashing the ball high into the roof of the net.

Ramsey and Higuain combined soon after, but the latter’s effort was saved by Sirigu, who was also equal to shots from outside the box from Ronaldo and Ramsey as Juve settled for a one-goal win.