Juventus delivered new coach Antonio Conte a flying start to the season in their new stadium with a 4-1 thrashing of Parma yesterday.
Stephan Lichsteiner and Arturo Vidal on their debuts alongside Simone Pepe and Claudio Marchisio scored the goals to hand Juve the ideal start.
Former Juve forward Sebastian Giovinco scored an injury-time consolation from the spot after Paolo De Ceglie had been sent off for bringing him down in the box.
Photo: EPA
Having spent heavily in the summer on a number of recruits, Juve handed debuts to Andrea Pirlo, Lichsteiner and Emanuele Giaccherini while Mirko Vucinic and Vidal both came off the bench to also make their first appearances in the black and white shirt.
Even though Juve’s new 41,000 capacity stadium was not quite full, there was a scorching atmosphere inside the ground for its first official match.
And the hosts did not disappoint, coming out of the traps with energy and desire.
They were ahead on 16 minutes after a moment of genius from Pirlo, who scooped the ball over a static back line for right-back Lichsteiner to run onto and take around Antonio Mirante, before slotting into the empty net.
Moments later Mirante had to be alert to block a shot from Alessandro Matri with his feet.
In the 39th minute, Juve had the ball in the net again as Matri headed in from barely a yard out, but it was ruled out for offside.
Although Matri may well have been onside when Andrea Barzagli headed the ball back across goal, two other Juve players in close attention weren’t.
The second half followed a similar pattern to the first as Alessandro Del Piero released Matri into a gaping hole in the middle of the Parma defense, but the forward’s shot struck the upright before rolling agonizingly across the line and away to safety.
The killer second came only four minutes later as Del Piero fed the ball wide to Pepe, who thrashed a shot across Mirante and inside the far post from 12 yards.
Midfielder Vidal then came on to score the third with an acrobatic volley from just outside the area.
The fourth was simply sublime as Pirlo played another sumptuous chipped pass over the top and Marchisio ran past ball-watching defenders to brilliantly flick the ball over Mirante on the stretch.
Parma did get on the scoresheet in injury time as De Ceglie brought down Giovinco, who picked himself up to score the spot-kick.
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