Oh brother: Thurams trade goals as Juve and Inter deliver a derby that had it all | Nicky Bandini

Igor Tudor sat down, straightened his tie and acknowledged we had all just witnessed a “particular game”. Seven goals (including some absolute screamers), back-and-forth lead changes, brothers as frenemies, a star turn from one of Serie A’s emerging talents and a deciding goal from a teenager. “Particular” was one word for this season’s first Derby d’Italia. “Completely bonkers”, might be two more.

Let us go back to the beginning. Juventus were hosting Inter on Saturday evening in a game that felt like it might have arrived a little too soon for everyone involved.

The Bianconeri had opened their campaign with wins over Parma and Genoa, but Tudor himself said he was still working out how to incorporate all his club’s summer signings. Loïs Openda’s deadline day arrival from RB Leipzig, together with the earlier capture of Jonathan David from Lille, meant he suddenly had options besides Dusan Vlahovic up front.

Inter had suffered a surprising home defeat by Udinese before the international break. Cristian Chivu, with only 13 games of prior management experience at Parma, was under pressure already to prove himself up to the task of replacing Simone Inzaghi.

A measure of caution from either manager would have been understandable at such an early stage of the campaign. Instead, we very nearly got a repeat of the 4-4 draw these teams played out under different bosses 10 months ago.

The game was less than a quarter of an hour old when Lloyd Kelly opened the scoring for Juventus. On another day this might have been the headline, the English centre-back scoring his first Serie A goal.

Former Newcastle defender Lloyd Kelly scored his first Serie A goal for Juventus. Photograph: Juventus FC/Getty Images

He has at times been made into a scapegoat in Turin, a symbol of questionable squad planning by a club who sold Dean Huijsen for less than €20m last summer only to then find themselves scrambling for a replacement in the winter. Kelly may never make Juventus fans forget the one who got away, but his goal here was beautifully taken, a side-foot finish into the bottom corner to convert a volleyed cross from his fellow defender Bremer.

There was little time to dwell, though, on this subplot. Hakan Calhanoglu equalised in the 30th minute with a first-time finish from the edge of the D. Kenan Yildiz put Juventus back in front before half-time, drilling into the bottom corner from 25 yards.

Might Inter’s goalkeeper, Yann Sommer, have done better? He got a hand to the ball, spinning away from him, but could not push it onto the post. Sommer has had two good seasons for Inter since joining from Bayern Munich, but every mistake is receiving greater scrutiny as he approaches his 37th birthday.

Yildiz is at the opposite end of his career. It was clear already last season, when he was still a teenager, that Juventus were building their future around him. Tudor adapted Juventus’s previous 3-4-2-1 for this game specifically to bring him into the middle as a No 10 behind Vlahovic. “You need your strongest players close to goal,” he said. “You don’t want them too far out wide.”

Chivu might have had the same thought. Yildiz’s compatriot Calhanoglu spent much of this game dictating play from the space behind Inter’s attack. The Nerazzurri were already dominating possession, but for the next half an hour they – and Calhanoglu in particular – hoarded it outside the Juventus box. He finally got them back level in the 65th minute with a gorgeous volley on the turn.

Another narrative thread lost in the tangle: Turkey’s captain duking it out with a kid who might one day succeed him. But there were more colourful ones to clutch onto yet.

Inter finally went in front for the first time in the 76th minute, Marcus Thuram heading home from a corner. He barely celebrated, acknowledging his teammates without a smile before doing an understated version of his customary pose with two fingers pointed at his temple.

His younger brother, Khéphren Thuram, showed no such reticence when he equalised with an almost identical header of his own from a set-piece. After thumping his chest, Khéphren gestured with two thumbs towards their surname on the back of his shirt. And then mimicked Marcus’s salute as well.

Federico Dimarco takes a corner for Inter. Photograph: Mattia Pistoia/Inter/Getty Images

They faced each other twice last season, after Khéphren joined Juventus from Nice, but this was the first time they had done so with both brothers on the pitch from the start. During pre-game interviews, the 28-year-old Marcus was sincere, saying his sibling “knows what I think of him, he’s the most important person”. Khéphren, 24, was more light-hearted, describing himself as “the best little brother in the world.”

Their father Lilian watched from the stands. A former Juventus player, he had kept a poker face for Marcus’s goal but allowed himself a smile for Khéphren’s.

Incredibly, the drama was not yet done. In the 91st minute, Juventus found a sensational winner from the boot of a 19-year-old. Vasilije Adzic, on as a second-half substitute, received a lay-off from David 30 yards from goal, took one touch and blasted the ball into the top left corner.

Once again, Sommer might have done better. As throughout the game, on both sides, the defending was sloppy as well. Inter felt Khéphren Thuram had committed a foul in the buildup, too. The quality of the finish, though, was undeniable: a final exclamation point to conclude this breathless drama. Adzic, a Montenegro international, was the youngest foreign player ever to score for Juventus in this fixture.

Even then, there was still one last viral scene to unfold. As players waited for officials to confirm the goal would stand, the Thuram brothers stood chatting. They raised their shirts up to cover their mouths, but Marcus could be seen smiling around the edges.

Is it so scandalous for a footballer to show a little happiness for their sibling? In a derby game, perhaps it is. Or maybe so much happened on Saturday that this will just be one more item on a list of 10,000 footnotes.

What will endure is the final scoreline: a 4-3 Juventus win. Tudor said afterwards that a draw might have been the “right result”. Chivu sounded like a man who thought his team deserved even more than that, saying he had “never seen Inter play this well in Turin. Never.”

A subjective assessment. Inter did dictate the play, and there were phases in which they made a mockery of Juventus’s attempts at press, but there were periods of possession in which they failed to carve out chances as well. They also had moments of defensive inattentiveness and conceded four times from four shots on target.

Chivu will understand he has little room for error with a team that is expected to compete for the Scudetto. Inter had not lost two of their first three games since 2011-12, when they got through three managers. The present owners are unlikely to be as trigger-happy as Massimo Moratti was back then, but certainly the pressure is rising.

For Tudor the picture is reversed. Juventus were deeply imperfect on Saturday, but they showed character to come back and win all the same. Yildiz has started this season in electric form and Adzic – a player who Tudor and his staff have invested considerable time into developing since taking over in March – looks ready to play a part too.

It is too soon yet to know where any of this will lead. More games like Saturday’s though, would make for a very particular journey indeed.