Monday, August 4, 2008
Juve Lose But Three Up Front Formation Looks Good
The Emirates Cup has slipped away and Hamburg remain a bogey team. But Claudio Ranieri can consider this Sunday a positive day, despite the two injuries (Knezevic and Molinaro were both forced to come off the pitch), mostly thanks to the first seasonal experiment with three up front.
Twenty minutes with Del Piero, Amauri and Iaquinta playing together gave Juve at least four clear chances, including a Camoranesi goal unjustly disallowed for offside; something to mull over in view of the qualifiers and the rest of the season.
After the win over Arsenal, Juve suffered a 3-0 defeat (goals by Guerrero after 19 minutes and Olic, who got two in injury time) that was totally undeserved, at least in terms of the final score. The Bianconeri now have no chance of winning the Emirates Cup and won't need to wait for the result of the final game between Arsenal and Real Madrid.
As promised, Ranieri completely changed the starting eleven from yesterday's game against Arsenal: Chimenti in goal, Zebina, Legrottaglie, Knezevic and Salihamidzic in defence, Camoranesi, Poulsen, Ekdal and Rossi in midfield, and the Del Piero-Amauri duo up front.
The Germans started off well with the three forwards Guerrero, Zidan and Olic calling Chimenti into action from the kick-off. Hamburg dominated early on and capitalized on that after 19 minutes when Guerrero scored the first goal. Juve reacted with Del Piero and Amauri, but also Fausto Rossi, who troubled the opponents' goalkeeper from outside. Before the break Zebina did well stopping a dangerous counter-attack.
There were two changes at the start of the second half: Grygera and Molinaro replaced Rossi and Zebina, with Salihamidzic shifting forward on the left flank. After a few minutes, Marchionni came on for Ekdal too.
The replacements were immediately on the ball after 53 minutes, when Marchionni passed for Molinaro, who put the ball in but the defence got to it before the Bianconeri forwards. Seconds later, Knezevic unfortunately suffered an injury and had to be replaced by Chiellini.
There was one chance for each team in the 56th minute. Salihamidzic fumbled just yards from goal and on the turn-over Olic missed in front of an oncoming Chimenti. Juve gradually improved and only a great save by Rost avoided Amauri equalizing with a powerful header.
Claudio Ranieri tried three up front for the first time after 71 minutes. Poulsen came off (the Dane played the longest he’s done so far) and Iaquinta came on. The former Udinese player immediately had a great chance: set up by a long Legrottaglie pass, the striker tried to chip the ball over Rost but the keeper intercepted it, deflecting the ball towards Amauri, who shot at goal but a German defender cleared the ball off the goal line.
One minute later, Iaquinta was in the spotlight again, set up by Marchionni, but the German goalkeeper saved again. From the corner kick, again Iaquinta had a chance but Rost was excellent. The deserved draw was in the air and Camoranesi nailed it, but the linesman had it disallowed due to a non-existent offside.
Before the end there was more bad news in medical terms. Molinaro had to go out after clashing with Chiellini and Zidan, and Tiago replaced him. There was still time for two Hamburg counter-attacks well into injury time, when Olic beat Chimenti twice, setting the score to 3-0, a score that doesn't paint a correct picture of how the game actually went.
Sauce: Juventus.com
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