Juventus break down stubborn Parma with second-half goals from Nico Gonzalez and Koopmeiners at the Allianz Stadium

Parma held firm without much trouble for an hour at the Allianz Stadium, but couldn't keep the clean sheet forever. A left-footed strike from Nico Gonzalez in the 61st minute, just five minutes after coming on as a substitute, put Juventus ahead. Teun Koopmeiners, another player who had just entered the match, sealed it in the 87th with an assist from Manuel Locatelli. Final score: 2-0 in a Serie A match that Juventus controlled from start to finish, though it took too long to turn that dominance into goals.

If the first half made anything clear, it's that dominating and scoring are not the same thing. Juventus set up camp in the opposing half almost from kickoff, with Douglas Luiz testing the Parma goal from outside the box on several occasions and Francisco Conceicao ringing the right post with a shot in the 32nd minute. Douglas Luiz also headed a chance in the 41st and Jonathan David had a go right before the break, but the Parma goalkeeper and some bad luck with the woodwork kept things scoreless at halftime. Parma, meanwhile, barely showed up going forward: a shot from Christian Ordonez in the 12th minute was about the only thing they produced in that opening period.

The script didn't change much after the break, except for one detail that proved decisive: the substitutions. In the 56th minute, Juventus shook up the lineup, bringing on Kerim Alajbegovic and Nico Gonzalez in place of Jonathan David. That move took just five minutes to pay off: Nico Gonzalez first rattled the left post, and on the very next play, in the 61st minute, he finished low with his left foot to make it 1-0. Parma answered with a bit more courage through David Romero, who tested the goal twice within seconds of each other without finding the net, but that was as close as they came to getting back into the match.

Juventus kept creating chances through Randal Kolo Muani, who came close with a header off the crossbar in the 69th minute, and put the result beyond doubt late on. Koopmeiners, who had come on for an injured Andrea Cambiaso, finished left-footed inside the box after a pass from Locatelli in the 87th minute to make it a final 2-0.

The numbers back up the dominance

The stats confirm what was clear on the field: Juventus controlled possession and piled up scoring chances against a Parma side that could hardly get a foothold in the game.

Our expected goals estimate, calculated from the shots taken in the match, shows an even sharper contrast: 1.804 xG for Juventus against just 0.242 for Parma. A dominance that the scoreline eventually reflected, though it arrived later than those numbers suggested for much of the game.

The preview had projected a match favoring Juventus, with a 64% chance of a home win, a 25% chance of a draw, and just 11% for a Parma victory. The pre-match expected goals figures pointed to 1.74 to 0.58 in favor of the home side, numbers that the course of the match ultimately validated in the final result, even though the team needed patience and fresh legs off the bench to break a deadlock that held for more than an hour.

What it means for the standings

With this result, Juventus reaches 6 points from two matches played, sitting in second place in the league, level with Milan at the top. Parma, on the other hand, is still searching for its first three points: they remain in 17th place with 0 points from two outings, a 6-point gap to tonight's opponent. A stat that sums up well the distance between the two sides at the Allianz Stadium.