Derby days are usually defined by raw emotion, chaotic tackles, and tight margins, but on September 23, 2017, Juventus turned the Derby della Mole into a display of pure technical dominance. Hosting Siniša Mihajlović’s Torino at the Allianz Stadium, Massimiliano Allegri’s side delivered a ruthless 4-0 thrashing. At the heart of it all was Miralem Pjanić, who produced one of his finest performances in Black and White alongside a clinical Paulo Dybala.
Allegri set his side up in a dynamic 4-2-3-1, with
Medhi Benatia alongside Giorgio Chiellini after Leonardo Bonucci’s summer departure for AC Milan. Pjanić anchored the double pivot alongside Blaise Matuidi, while Juan Cuadrado, Dybala, and Douglas Costa supported Mario Mandžukić up front. The setup gave Pjanić complete ownership of the tempo, acting as the team’s deep-lying metronome to dismantle Torino’s structure before the match could even settle into a contest.
The derby’s tipping point arrived midway through the first half. After Dybala opened the scoring with a crisp, low drive, Torino defender Daniele Baselli picked up a second yellow card in the 24th minute for a reckless challenge on Pjanić. With Torino down to ten men, the Bosnian playmaker took complete control. Just before halftime, Cuadrado cut the ball back to the edge of the box, where Pjanić met it with a trademark side-footed curling finish into the bottom corner.
Pjanić was far from finished. Early in the second half, his pinpoint corner found Alex Sandro to head home the third. Later in the half, Gonzalo Higuaín came on and immediately made an impact. Deep into stoppage time, Pipita unselfishly teed up Dybala to dink the ball over the keeper for his second of the night, capping off a 4-0 rout.
In the aftermath of the derby, the debate among the fanbase wasn’t about whether the team had played the right way. Instead, it centered on which of the two stars deserved the highest praise. Dybala’s ruthless brace and Pjanić’s masterclass with one goal and two assists went head-to-head in the crowdsourced Player of the Match poll, with La Joya narrowly edging out the Bosnian maestro for the MOTM honors by a single tally.
Matches like this September 2017 derby stand as a testament to the sheer swagger of that side — a night where tactical discipline, star power, and absolute control came together to leave our cross-town rivals without an answer.
