Post by Salem6 on Feb 11, 2008 7:58:15 GMT
Serie A Week 22 - 10/2/08 (14.00 UK)
Udinese 1 - 2 Juventus
Dossena 6 (U), Camoranesi 61 (J), Iaquinta 76 (J)
Stadio Friuli
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Vincenzo Iaquinta turned the game around to defeat the club he represented for seven years, but it was a struggle for Juventus, who consolidate their Champions League spot.
The two Bianconeri of the top flight went head to head in a battle for a Champions League spot and neither team was on great form. Juve had six points from their last four games, including a 1-1 draw with bottom of the table Cagliari, while Udinese were without a win in three.
Historically this was a bad fixture for the Friulani, who had only beaten Juve three times in 33 meetings here. It was an emotional return for Vincenzo Iaquinta, who left Udine in the summer after seven seasons at the club, but Guglielmo Stendardo was suspended. Gigi Buffon, Alessandro Del Piero, Jonathan Zebina and Giorgio Chiellini recovered from injury, Dias Felipe and Simone Pepe sat out bans.
The first real chance broke the deadlock after six minutes, as Buffon did what he could to parry a Fabio Quagliarella thunderbolt at the near post, but had no chance on Andrea Dossena's follow-up from six yards.
The Friulani nearly doubled their advantage on 20 minutes, a Gaetano D'Agostino corner kick cracking against the frame of the goal with Buffon stunned. The former Roma youth product had curled the corner in from the right with his left foot.
Udinese were totally dominating the early play and Juventus seemed to take a very long time to get into the game. On 25 minutes Antonio Di Natale turned Chiellini with incredible ease to bring a fantastic one-handed save out of Buffon.
The Bianconeri (today playing in their blue away strip) finally woke up after half an hour and started to pour forward, David Trezeguet's header and a Mauro Camoranesi snapshot going close.
In stoppages Juve wanted a penalty for Damiano Ferronetti's shove on Chiellini, but Udinese went close to a second with Quagliarella's overhead kick from a corner.
Buffon was an injury doubt for this game with a recurring back problem, but put fitness worries behind him with a sensational save on Antonio Floro Flores' angled drive.
Juventus managed to grab an equaliser somewhat against the run of play, as Camoranesi rose above the crowd to get his head to Del Piero's corner kick on the hour mark.
Del Piero had penalty appeals waved away, as he appeared to walk into Inler after dribbling past two Udinese players. But it was former Udinese hero Iaquinta who turned the game around completely just seconds after stepping on to the field. He sprung the offside trap on Pavel Nedved's through ball and swept in with the inside of his right foot.
Buffon had to be at full stretch to push a Gokhan Inler strike out from under the crossbar.
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Udinese: Handanovic; Zapata, Coda, Lukovic; Ferronetti (Candreva 88), Inler, D’Agostino, Dossena; Floro Flores, Quagliarella, Di Natale
Juventus: Buffon; Zebina, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Molinaro; Camoranesi (Sissoko 86), Nocerino (Palladino 70), Zanetti, Nedved; Trezeguet (Iaquinta 74), Del Piero
Ref: Rocchi
www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/sa0708/udi-juv.html