MATCH REPORT: Juventus vs Lazio 14.10.2017

Coming into Saturday night’s fixture Juventus had not lost a match at home since the 23^rd of August in 2015 against Udinese in a shock 1-0 defeat. The last time Lazio and Juventus faced each other was in a thrilling 3-2 Italian super cup final to open the 2017/2018 season back in August, and this match would also prove a thrilling contest. Juventus would still be without the services of several players going into this match, most notably Pjanic who was still injured. However, Mandzukic and Khedira managed to shake off knocks to take their places in the starting 11. Also missing from the starting line up was Dybala and Alex Sandro, presumably rested ahead of an upcoming Champions League fixture against Sporting Lisbon. The match started brightly enough with both sides having chances, Juventus would control most of the first half and find their reward through a Douglas Costa goal on the 26^th minute, although VAR reared its head to threaten the decision, After a long wait the goal was indeed given. Higuain had an opportunity to double the bianconeri lead shortly afterwards, but took one too many touches and the chance was gone. Higuain would also be involved in a bizarre moment when on the 37th minute Higuain closed down Lazio goalkeeper Strakosha, resulting in the clearance ricocheting off the Argentine and onto the bar of the goal frame. The ball however did not go over the line and Strakosha blushes were spared.

As the second half kicked off it looked like only one of the sides had stepped onto the pitch, and it wasn’t Juventus. Immobile would draw the sides level just two minutes into the second half, catching a Juventus defence completely unaware as he slotted the ball past Buffon into the bottom corner of the net. Higuain had a chance to restore Juventus lead inside the Lazio area, but was denied by the feet of  Strakosha. Two minutes later Immobile was causing the Juventus defence problems again, strolling past Chiellini only to be thwarted by Buffon as he was brought down by the experienced goalkeeper for a penalty. Buffon would luckily only see yellow, as the referee could have deemed it red instead for preventing a goal scoring opportunity. Immobile stepped up and scored again for his 15^th goal of the season, and second of the night in just eight minutes. The game quickly turned into an end to end contest as Juventus desperately looked for an equaliser with chances for both sides.

Dybala would be introduced into the fray on the 65^th minute and was unlucky not to score when his shot hit off the post. Deep into stoppage time and still behind 2-1, VAR would come into play again when Juventus weir awarded a penalty for a challenge on Bernadeschi. Like the previous fixture away to Atalanta, up stepped Dybala to take the penalty, and like before Dybala failed from the spot as his effort was saved by Strakosha. And so the game ended 2-1 and with it Juventus impressive home form of avoiding defeat, dating back to the opening day of the 2015/2016 season on August 23rd 2015

FULL TIME: Juventus 1-2 Lazio
Goal Scorers: D.Costa (23), Immobile (47), (54,PEN)