Juventusvs
ParmaFor most of the night, Juventus looked like a team that had forgotten how to finish. They had the ball, the corners, the shots — 21 of them by the final whistle — and yet Parma's goalkeeper kept the score level deep into the second half. Then Nico González found the net in the 62nd minute, and everything that had felt stuck suddenly moved.
Our pre-match read had Juventus as heavy favorites at 77%, and that is exactly how it played out — though Parma's resistance made the evening far less comfortable than that number suggests.
A Long Wait for the Opening Goal
Juventus controlled possession from the start — 57.7% over ninety-plus minutes, 536 passes at 90% accuracy — but Parma sat deep and compact, content to let the home side have the ball in areas that didn't hurt them. Jhon Lucumí picked up a yellow in the 10th minute for a foul that signaled early on how physical the night would get; Juventus committed 23 fouls in total, which tells you something about how many times they were chasing the game sideways rather than playing through it cleanly.
Parma's own best moments were few. Four shots, three on target — enough to keep the scoreboard honest, but rarely enough to genuinely threaten. Still, going into the final half hour at 0-0, there was a real sense that if Juventus didn't find something soon, this could slip.
They found it through González. The goal came at 62 minutes, no assist recorded, and it was the kind of moment that changes a match's entire texture. Parma, who had looked disciplined and organized, now had to come out. That opened space Juventus hadn't had before.
Locatelli Picks Up a Yellow, Then Picks Up an Assist
Manuel Locatelli was booked in the 54th minute — one of three yellows shown in a two-minute stretch around the hour mark, with Parma's Enrico Del Prato following in the 55th — which gave the match a briefly fractious edge. Parma's Mariano Troilo was carded in the 78th, and Abdou-Salam Konate collected the visitors' third yellow deep in stoppage time, all of which underlined how much frustration had built up on that side of the pitch.
Locatelli, yellow card and all, had the last word: his assist in the 88th minute set up Teun Koopmeiners to finish and make it 2-0. Cabal, that was the moment the match was done.
Verdict
Juventus have now won four of their last five in Serie A, and this result, ugly stretches included, adds to that run. The concern — if there is one — is the 21 shots it took to generate six on target, and the fact that a team with Parma's recent form (three losses in five) made them wait until the 62nd minute to break through. The attack will need to be sharper against better opposition.
Parma, for their part, will feel they gave a reasonable account of themselves for an hour. The problem is the hour after that.
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