Andrea Pirlo's thumping effort on the stroke of half time has given Juventus a 2-1 half-time lead over Atalanta BC in Turin this evening.

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Fernando Llorente had the chance to put the home side ahead early on, but skewed his shot wide at the near post from Pirlo's corner.

The duo combined once more later on, but the Spanish forward dragged a 20-yard shot wide after being released by the veteran midfielder's threaded pass behind the Atalanta defence.

Midway through the half, Daniele Baselli blasted the ball at Gianluigi Buffon from 12 yards after Urby Emanuelson's jinking run through the home defence, but from the resulting corner Atalanta took a shock lead as Giulio Migliaccio's glancing header clipped the inside of the far post and rolled across the line.

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Roberto Pereyra and Martin Cacares were both denied by fine Marco Sportiello saves as Juve poured forward in search of a leveller, but the goalkeeper was helpless to prevent Llorente from equalising after the forward reacted quickest in a goalmouth scramble to level the scores.

The goal gave the hosts confidence and with the final kick of the half Pirlo slammed an unerring 30-yard strike into the top corner to give Juve the lead for the first time in the game.