Alvaro Morata scores twice as Juventus cruise to win at Torino

Updated: May 17, 2023, 06:02 am

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon made Serie A history in a Turin derby victory for Juventus as substitute Alvaro Morata's double helped ease their midweek Champions League heartache.

Buffon, 38, needed to survive just four minutes of the meeting with rivals Torino to pass Sebastiano Rossi's all-time league record of 929 minutes without conceding, and he did so with ease before Juventus moved 2-0 ahead through Paul Pogba and Sami Khedira, who was later dismissed.

Eventually Buffon was beaten for the first time in the league since January 10 by an Andrea Belotti penalty, yet the Bianconeri made sure of the points with a brilliant third through substitute Morata, who notched again late on in a result that extended Juve's unbeaten run to 20 league games.

Buffon had let in four goals in 120 minutes on Wednesday when Bayern Munich came from two goals down to eliminate Juventus from the Champions League in Bavaria.

As they had done on that night in Munich, Juventus went ahead through Pogba.

Alvaro Morata celebrates one of his two goals at Torino.
MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images

Paulo Dybala had been taking the visitors' free-kicks until being forced off with a hamstring injury and Pogba stepped up in his absence to curl home a fine 30-yard set-piece with 33 minutes gone.

After Pogba nearly repeated his trick from the opposite side of the box, Khedira doubled Juventus' lead by waltzing through the middle of Torino's defence and placing beyond Daniele Padelli.

The hosts fought back after the break, though it took a degree of fortune to finally beat Buffon after 974 minutes, with Belotti slotting a penalty past him that was awarded despite Alex Sandro seemingly winning the ball when tackling Bruno Peres.

The luck evened itself out just before the hour mark as Maxi Lopez, on at half-time for the injured Ciro Immobile, looked level when the flag was raised just before he fired a would-be equaliser past Buffon.

But Pogba and Morata then took control to ensure Juventus cruised to a comfortable victory over their neighbours.

Frenchman Pogba turned inside Nikola Maksimovic and scooped a pass through to Morata, who took one touch and lfited the ball over Padelli to make it 3-1.

After Buffon had saved from Lopez, Juve's two dangermen combined again 13 minutes on with a scrappier goal, Morata turning in Pogba's attempted shot after the Frenchman's first free-kick was blocked straight back to him.

The gloss was taken off the victory somewhat by Khedira's 87th-minute red card, which he seemingly accrued for something he said to the referee during a feisty affair, but the day belonged to Buffon and a Juventus team who last lost in the league at the end of October.