Adzic's Stunner Secures Derby d'Italia Thriller for Juventus: Youngster's Late Strike Steals the Show

It was chaos in the Derby d 'Italia. The score read Juventus 3 - 3 Inter Milan, the match between the two Italian giants ticking over the 90-minute mark and into five minutes of injury time. For two teams so historically renowned for defensive prowess and almost 'dour' football, modern iterations of this 'derby' have been quite adventurous... but rarely as utterly chaotic as this.

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Lloyd Kelly (once of Bournemouth) opened the scoring for Juve with a lovely, cushioned volley in the 14th minute. On the half hour mark, Hakan Calhanoglu equalised with a left-footed piledriver from outside the box. Eight minutes later Kenan Yildiz scored a scorcher from well outside to hand the home side the lead again, one they kept going into half time. Twenty minutes into the second 45, Calhanoglu then scored an even better goal to equalise once again, walking backwards to chest a loose ball on the edge of the box and smash a volley into the bottom corner.

Then came the Thuram brothers show. Watched by their father, the great Lilian Thuram, Marcus headed Inter ahead in minute 76, before seven minutes later Khephren scored a very similar header to bring things level. As it stood, then, it was anyone's game -- with long shots flying close to goal, chances created on almost every attack, tackles flying in -- when Vasilije Adzic got the ball.

If you read that name and thought 'eh, so what?' few would blame you. Just like you, Inter saw Adzic trap a loose ball about thirty yards out and collectively thought 'eh, so what?' After all Adzic was just a 19-year-old who had spent the last year with Juve's reserves in Serie C and scored four goals in Italy's third division.

The midfielder from Montenegro was promoted to the first team permanently at the beginning of the season but had not made an appearance till he was subbed on here, just before the Khephren goal. 'So what?' seemed a reasonable question to ask.

It wasn't.

You see, Adzic had been approached by a number of clubs in the summer when it had looked like the Montenegrin wouldn't make it to the Juve first team, but new coach Igor Tudor had seen something in him. Although he'd been used as a second striker for most of his youth career, Tudor saw the 6'2" player as a midfielder and had made sure Juve didn't show any interest in selling him.

90:45 into the derby d 'Italia he was about to show why. As he got the ball to feet that far out, as everyone else more or less stopped paying attention, as the Inter defenders and goalkeeper Yann Sommer relaxed, waiting to reset and reload... he took a touch. And let fly.

With no run-up, no real backlift, with the ball basically at standstill, he smashed the ball low and hard, generating so much power that it flicked the diving Sommer's hands and nestled in the bottom corner. His first goal for Juventus, and it was an absolute sledgehammer, a shot of near impossible power, to win one of the great fixtures of the Italian football season. He'd become the youngest non-Italian to score for Juventus against Inter in Serie A history.

After the match, Montenegro captain Stevan Jovetic said, "Adzic is a pure talent, his shooting style reminds me of Lampard," before paying him the ultimate compliment. "In the national team, I'll leave the free kicks to him. He can have them."

For scoring a winner for the ages, Vasilije Adzic takes our moment of the week.