As expected Salvatore Masiello and Migjen Basha replaced the suspended Matteo Darmian and Giuseppe Vives, however Riccardo Meggiorini was surprisingly preferred to Paulo Barreto upfront.
In the early stages, captain Rolando Bianchi - playing in what is likely to be his last Turin derby - got on the end of a long ball from defence but was unable to get a shot away. In dreadful conditions, both teams were struggling to create chances in what was always going to be a tense affair.
However, Juve should have taken the lead when Paul Pogba's delightful through ball found Mirko Vucinic, but the Montenegrin striker surprisingly shot wide. Granata keeper Gillet was twice forced into two saves, firstly from Claudio Marchisio's shot, and then from Stephan Lichtsteiner's teasing cross.
Just before half time Toro had their best chance of the half, when Gigi Buffon tipped Mario Santana's long range shot over the bar.
In the second half chances were even harder to come by, and Toro brought on Jonathas in search of a historic winning goal, whilst Valerio Di Cesare also came on to replace the injured Danilo D'Ambrosio.
Torino were grateful for an outstanding interception from Alessandro Gazzi to deny Leonardo Bonucci what would have been a certain goal. And then, with ten minutes remaining the home side and an outstanding chance themselves to end their goal drought in this fixture.
Alessio Cerci received the ball on the right wing after combining with Jonathas and Rolando Bianchi before delivering a right footed cross which the former just failed to make contact with. However, on the replays, it was clear to see that the Brazilian striker had in fact been pulled back by Bonucci, and that the Granata had been denied a certain penalty.
At the other end Paul Pogba missed an incredible chance to give Juve the lead, as he somehow diverted Kwado Asamoah's floated cross wide of the post from three yards. However, with five minutes remaining, the league leaders finally got the breakthrough as Arturo Vidal's 25 yard volley beat Gillet to break Torino hearts.
There was still time for Kamil Glik to be sent off - for the second time this season against Juventus - after the Polish international received a second yellow card for a foul on Fabio Quagliarella. And to make things even worse, in injury time Juventus doubled their lead thanks to Claudio Marchisio's half volley.
Whilst it is beginning to get tiresome to write this after every match, Toro probably deserved at least a point from this game, and it took a world class striker from Arturo Vidal to break the deadlock. In addition, had Toro (rightfully) been awarded a penalty with ten minutes remaining and the scores level, then who knows we may have been celebrating our first victory against Juve since 1995. However, instead we must focus on the fact that Torino are now undoubtedly involved in a relegation battle, and are just four points above the drop zone, and face another tough fixture at AC Milan next week.
Forza Torino
Great summary I also agree that if the penalty was called who knows how the final 10 min would have played out. I also hope that Bianchi is still with us next year in serie a of course.
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