Del Piero Wonder Goal Downs Zenit

Juventus 1 - 0 Zenit St. Petersburg

Holla.... I cant wait this match actually, but what a waste... only my brother have astro sports which is in his room only... How am I going to watch la?? Although the match between the two teams inda kana ambil secara live, so I just check the latest result from internet. Woke up around 3.30 a.m., I browsed any soccer website that were showing broadcast, kesiann ah, demi kan cek result nya wahaha. Ok, lets me begin the preview before the game took place and what happened during the match. This is just taken from several sources hehee.

My favourite team, Juventus, made their return to Europe’s premier club competition after two years in the Calciopoli-imposed wildnerness, and they were virtually at full strength, with only Jonathan Zebina and Cristiano Zanetti, who are by no-means first team players, out injured. Haitss lama jua nunggu tu dalam 2 tahun lapas match fixing scandal. The coach, Claudio Ranieri made four changes from the team who beat Udinese 1-0 on Sunday, selecting Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet up-front, with Nicola Legrottaglie and Cristian Molinaro replacing Olof Mellberg and Paolo De Ceglie respectively in defence. Suxxx....shud be the young De Ceglie instead of Molinaro hehe. Hmm pasal Zenit, malas tah ku kan cerita tu eh....Not interested hehe Im biased ni.

Throughout the game, Juventus was outclassed by Zenit...sshhh sasakku....especially in midfield. What the hell Poulsen and Sissoko couldnt win the ball and give the correct passes. But Juve also got its chances through Camoranesi and Poulsen from which the former hit the post through header and the latter, his header was saved by Zenit keeper. Chances by chances......Zenit still couldnt score. How awful!! Ranieri knew something had to be done and he made a second change, replacing the disappointing Molinaro with Paolo De Ceglie. The first change was to substitute the injured Camoranesi with Salihamidzic.

Juventus were disjointed, as they had been almost all night. There was also a distinct lack of pace or imagination in the team, and as the game entered the final quarter, if anyone looked like winning it certainly was Zenit.

The goal: In 76th minute, Juve finally broke the deadlock courtesy of an absolute wonder goal from Alessandro Del Piero. The legendary captain let fly with a dipping, swerving free kick from fully 30 yards that moved both left and right as it flew past Malafeev. It was a quite incredible strike! Amazing, superb...wonderful.....what a great technique!!!

Amauri came on for Trezeguet in the closing minutes, and almost helped create a second goal for Del Piero but Juve managed to hold out as they earned a narrow win on their return to the Champions League.

Teams:

Juventus: Buffon, Grygera, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Molinaro (De Ceglie 56), Camoranesi (Salihamidzic 31), Poulsen, Sissoko, Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet (Amauri 87)

Zenit: Malafeev, Anyukov, Krizanac, Puygrenier, Sirl, Denisov, Tymoschuk, Zyrianov (Dominguez 78), Arshavin, Danny, Pogrebnyak

Goals:

Del Piero 75 (J)