Played 24, won 17, drawn six is the tale of the tape of past meetings between Juve and Chievo since the Gialloblu’s promotion to the Italian top flight in 2000/01.

Of those played in Turin, the Bianconeri hold the upper hand, winning nine of the last 12 encounters with the Verona outfit.

As the Old Lady goes in search of registering a tenth home victory against Saturday evening’s opposition, Massimiliano Allegri’s men will be looking for repeat performances of the previous three meetings between the sides at Juventus Stadium.

On those occasions, in January 2015, February 2014 and September 2012, spectacular goals, and plenty of them, were the order of the day.

After a frustrating afternoon at the hands of a determined and committed Chievo rearguard, and despite carving out several gilt-edged opportunities, it looked for all the world that the Bianconeri would draw a blank at Juventus Stadium when the sides last met in January.

As fine headed chances came and went for Alvaro Morata and Giorgio Chiellini and saves from Albano Bizzarri denied first Roberto Pereyra and then Arturo Vidal, it took a true moment of magic to break the deadlock. 

When it came, it was a sight to behold: in three devastating touches, Paul Pogba turned the game on its head.

Collecting Carlos Tevez’s lay-off 25 yards from goal, the Frenchman got the ball out of his feet, nutmegged the covering defender and lashed home an unstoppable left-footed drive inside the near post, his fourth in as many games.

One became two 14 minutes later courtesy of another touch of class from Pogba, as the youngster pulled Simone Padoin’s cross out of the air, juggled the ball and crashed in a volley.

After Bizzarri’s reflex stop, Stephan Lichtsteiner was at hand to sweep home a third and seal all three points for Allegri’s men.

A year previously, the fireworks came courtesy of another midfielder, Kwadwo Asamoah. This time, the Juventus Stadium faithful did not have to wait long for the Chievo defence to be prised open.

With 17 minutes played, the Ghanaian took three defenders out of the game with a sharp one-two with Fernando Llorente, before looking up and curling an inch-perfect effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Just over 10 minutes later, the lead was doubled. As Andrea Pirlo’s low free-kick veered up off the turf in front of the Chievo goalkeeper, Claudio Marchisio was the quickest on the scene to poke home the rebound.

After half-time however the visitors rallied and, spurred on by Martin Caceres’ unfortunate own goal five minutes after the interval, fought their way back into the game.

Leonardo Bonucci’s goal-saving interception brought his side to life and the game was put to bed at the other end four minutes later as Llorente met a teasing Pirlo corner, securing in the process a 12^th consecutive home win for Antonio Conte’s charges.

After three Serie A victories on the spin against Parma (2-0), Udinese (4-1) and Genoa (3-1) and a stirring away draw with Chelsea (2-2) in the Champions League, the reigning champions came into their second home game of the 2012/13 campaign full of confidence.

Once again, the Bianconeri and the Gialloblu were separated by some individual moments of brilliance, both coming from Fabio Quagliarella.

Buoyed by his decisive equaliser at Stamford Bridge earlier in the week, the striker put this game beyond the visitors with a pair of classy finishes in the space of ten minutes.

To open the deadlock, the ex-Napoli forward produced a brilliant scissor kick from another accurate Pirlo delivery and helped himself to a second shortly afterwards thanks to a sublime first touch and precise finish.

After a two week domestic hiatus, Allegri’s Juventus will know that if they can produce anything like the same quality of performance and poise in front of goal as these previous three home ties with Chievo, they will be well on the way to kick-starting their title defence.

source: juventus.com