Novara V Juventus

This match was billed as a potential "banana skin" for Juventus' title hopes, and with Milan breathing down their necks, any slip up would have been duly appreciated by the Rossneri. But it was not to be, as Juve ran out 4-0 winners! This was such an emotional game, because this is and very well could be the last " Piedmonte Derby", as Novara look to be going down, and for all those anxieties filling the Novara players, only 1 card was brandished through out the game and that was to Simone Pesce of Novara, so I have to tip my hat off to the officiating for letting the game be as free flowing as it was.
As in typical Juve fashion, they had the majority of possession with 66% and had 26 goals with 10 on goal and forcing the keeper to make 6 saves. The first goal took a while, at 16 minutes Mirku Vucinic got on the end of a fairly peculiar free kick by Andrea Pirlo, and instinctively flicked it in the top left hand corner. Vucinic had been a fairly frustrating player and I wasn't to sure which one was going to show up, but all my worries were scrubbed away when he scored his second on 64 minutes, that was in between fine goals by Marco Borriello and Arturo Vidal. Borriello was high on confidence after his winner at Cesena and could have made it 3-0 in the second half, but he fluffed it. But a good thing for this Juve side is that goals come from all over and on 50 minutes it was 3-0, as Vidal was the first to react as Fontana saved the shot by Vucinic but he didn't anticipate Vidal striking beauty!

As the Novara started to become deflated, there was more to come as Vucinic made it 4-0, and then you could see it was truly over, yet Juve remained professional and continued to play. Novara did have 2 shots on goal forcing Gianluigi Buffon to stay sharp, because it does only take one mistake, but it wasn't to be and Juve have now gone 3 games without conceding a goal, and that should be attributed to the ethos brought in by Antonio Conte, which is hard work but above all to defend, he encourages his men to always be ready to help out in defence.

The title race is in the balance as Milan also beat Siena 4-1, so that pretty much leaves the top as it was, but Milan have the much anticipated Milan Derby next week and Juve are home to Lecce in midweek- but are facing a Lecce side who are facing relegation, so it could be a feisty affair!