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Juventus-Torino, Saturday Night of the twelfth round of Serie A, puts the two Turin teams in the Derby della Mole.

After many years of regional dominance, one-way matches, and a huge lead in the standings, the feeling was that this year we would witness a more “balanced” Derby della Mole. Don’t get me wrong: Juventus remains light years ahead of Torino and we already knew that, but the start of the season for the granata (one of the revelations of Serie A) suggested, if nothing else, a top-level derby.

Instead, Torino sadly collapsed. Partly due to Zapata’s injury, partly due to the overperformance at the beginning of the season that temporarily obscured the limits of the squad and the transfer market. A situation that Torino fans know better than all of us, as they have been experiencing it for years and have never stopped expressing their dissent towards the ownership, regardless of the (initially) good results.

Even the skill of Vanoli had contributed to sweeping the dust under the rug for a while, but the deep-rooted limits of the squad (the same ones highlighted by Juric in previous seasons) and the huge amount of injuries have shattered any soaring dreams. Torino has thus returned to a dimension that is not its own but is sadly beginning to be internalized as normal, that of the mid-table.

Eleventh place in the standings with fourteen points. Temporarily overtaken by Empoli (which drew last night against Lecce), one would say, but this assumes that the granata manage to earn points against the bianconeri: something that Torino rarely achieves lately. A draw here and there can still be obtained, but a victory in the derby has been missing since 2015: 19 matches ago.

In general, Juventus has remained unbeaten in 35 of the last 36 encounters, with the cousins ​​never managing to conquer the new bianconeri stadium, whether it is called Allianz or Juventus. Although Juve is far from being a complete team, or simply “a Motta team,” this imperfect and patched version of itself should be more than enough to overcome Torino.

Juventus-Torino, official line-ups

Juventus (4-2-3-1): Perin; Savona, Gatti, Kalulu, Cambiaso; Thuram, Locatelli; Weah, Koopmeiners, Yildiz; Vlahovic. Coach: Thiago Motta.

Torino (3-5-1-1): Milinkovic-Savic; Walukiewicz, Coco, Masina; Lazaro, Linetty, Ricci, Ilic, Pedersen; Vlasic; Sanabria. Coach: Vanoli.