Late headers give Juventus dramatic derby win over Torino

Soccer Football – Serie A – Juventus v Torino – Allianz Stadium, Turin, Italy – December 5, 2020 Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci celebrates scoring their second goal with Weston McKennie REUTERS/Massimo Pinca

TURIN, Italy—Champions Juventus scored two almost identical headed goals in the final quarter of an hour as they came from behind to beat smaller neighbours Torino 2-1 in a dramatic Derby della Mole in Serie A on Saturday.

Torino stunned the hosts when Nicolas Nkoulou scored from close range in the ninth minute and they were 12 minutes from their first away win against Juventus for 25 years before their resistance finally collapsed.

Substitute Weston McKennie headed the equaliser from a Juan Cuadrado cross in the 78th minute and defender Leonardo Bonucci grabbed the winner with one minute left.

The win lifted Juventus to second place with 20 points from 10 games, two ahead of Inter Milan, who were at home to Bologna later on Saturday, and Sassuolo, who visit AS Roma on Sunday.

Torino, with only one win this season, are 18th with six points.

Juve produced one of the worst first half-displays of the season and, despite dominating possession, took until the 43rd minute to muster their first shot on target.

Torino went ahead when a corner was played low to the near post, Juventus failed to clear and the ball rebounded to Nkoulou who reacted quickly to score from close range.

The Bulls should have added a second goal shortly afterwards when Andrea Belotti sent Simone Zaza clean through but his left-foot shot was too predictable and Wojciech Szczesny did well to save it.

Karol Linetty also got away from the Juve defence but was shouldered off the ball by Matthijs de Ligt.

Juventus came out stronger after the break and thought they had equalised in the 57th minute when Cuadrado’s volley from the edge of the area found its way through a forest of legs and into the net.

But after a long VAR review, it was disallowed for offside against Bonucci who was judged to have been interfering with play.

The pressure was starting to show, however, as Torino struggled to keep possession and there was an air of inevitability about the finale.

A Juventus corner was played to Cuadrado who sent over an inswinging cross and McKennie got to the ball first to score his first Serie A goal with a powerful downward header.

Eleven minutes later, Cuadrado swung over another cross and this time Bonucci met it to take the three points as Juve continued their dominance in the fixture.