After the disappointment of missing the Inter game due to family commitments, I made sure that even though Wednesday was a busy day I made time to sit down and watch the Rosanero take on the Old Lady. Making sure to avoid the score all evening, I was in for a treat.

Coach Delio Rossi made only one change from the team that took a 2-0 lead over Inter only to see the Nerazzuri come back to win 3-2. Ezquiel Munoz was replaced by Sinisa Andelkovic, another chance to see the Slovenian centre back.  Palermo started the game strongly, winning a game in the 1 ^st minute, Palermo’s intentions were clear, and the advantage was soon theirs.

Alessandro Del Piero found Milos Krasic but his shot was charged down, The Rosanero quickly went on the counter, the ball found its way to Javier Pastore with Josip Ilicic free on his right he looked out and played a sweet diagonal pass over the Juve defence and into Fabrizio Miccoli’s path, the former Juve man placed his left foot shot beautifully past the sprawling Gigi Buffon, again Palermo had the lead over one of the Italian giants.

Rossi was dealt a massive blow to his plans with only 11 minutes gone, Federico Balzaretti pulled up with what looks like a thigh strain and had to come off. Matteo Darmian came on in his place the 21 year old making only his third appearance in the pink and black.

The early change didn’t knock the home side off their stride though and after just 20 minutes they were 2-0 up. Fabio Grosso conceded a corner, the set-piece was blocked by fell to Matteo Cassani the full back who needs leads all Palermo players in appearances swung in the cross. Giulio Migliaccio timed his run perfectly and the Juve defence couldn’t stop him winning the header and powering the ball past Buffon. Once again the island side had a two goal lead, could they hold on to it this time.

For Juventus the second goal seemed to wake them from their slumber, they began to knock the ball about with more confidence and they started to put the pressure on the Palermo defence. During the week a Juventus fan claimed their 4-4-2 formation was too “rigid”, from the performance and the Renzo Barbera this seems a terrible description of how the Bianconeri play.

Krasic smelt the fear in young full back Darmian and any chance the Serbian got he attacked the by-line very often getting the better of the contest. Some of the football Juventus were playing was a joy to behold. Claudio Marchisio was troubling the midfield and defence with his movement, coming inside giving Grosso and Matri space to drift wide he was finding some dangerous positions in-field.

With Matri drifting off wide and Alessandro Del Piero coming deep the Palermo defence seemed confused at times who to pick up. Krasic continued to make dangerous runs in behind the defence, sooner or later Juventus good play was going to pay off.

Wave after wave on Bianconeri attack came, Palermo were doing well to get bodies in the way of the shots. One shot flew up in the air, and quite blatantly came down onto Cesare Bovo’s arm, the Juventus players were incensed, the referee must not have seen it clearly, maybe a little bit of karma on the side of Palermo. Marchisio was furious with the decision and it only ignited the fire inside of his soul.

Minutes later he brought Juventus back into the match. Sirigu had made a poor attempt at a punched clearance from Del Piero’s corner, Marchisio reacted quickest and fired the ball through an impossible gap, and Sirigu could only watch it flash past him and into the net. The goal would have surely triggered some flashbacks to Sunday’s game for the defence.

Alessandro Matri on his Juventus debut should have levelled the scores just before half-time, only yards from goal and what looked like an easy chance, he could only scuff the ball wide. He will score much harder goals for the Old Lady, how important would this miss be to his side’s chances.

Juve started the second half as they had finished the first, but after failing to find the goal in the first ten minutes with every passing half-chance it seemed the fire inside the away side dwindled away. Bovo made a last ditch block to deny Matri his debut goal. The defence stood strong and blocked most of Juve’s shots, Krasic tried till the end but just couldn’t find a way through.

Although Palermo’s first goal was a master class in counter attacking football, the main reason for the win was the midfield and defence holding strong. Antonio Nocerino had a superb game, not just fulfilling his defensive duties but on numerous occasions he has able to break out of defence and take the ball up the field away from danger, a rarely praised contribution, but one the defence would have been relieved of.

Another player in the impressive category was Slovenian midfielder Armin Bacinovic, he had one of those games that you want your holding midfielder to have, from the above heat map you can see he coved nearly every blade of grass on the pitch but you very rarely noticed him. Alberto Aquilani got quieter as the game went on, and don’t think these too things are unrelated.

Overall a superb win for the Rosanero, they leapfrog Juventus into sixth place and into the Europa League spot. The weekend sees Rossi’s men travel to the Stadio Comunale Via del Mare to take on Lecce who themselves got a 1-0 victory over Parma during the week, after a great result against Juventus it’s a game the pink and black shouldn’t take lightly.