[Champions League] Juventus vs Zenit ( 17th September , 2008) (17 Viewers)

[JCK]

Some fast ratings

Buffon 6.5: Did a couple of good saves.
Grygera 6: Solid, started out very energetic but cooled down later on.
Legro 6.5: Solid
Chiellini 6.5: Chiellini
Molinaro 4: Useless
Camoranesi: N.R.
Poulsen 5.5: Gave the ball away too much at first but found his game by the end.
Sissoko 6.5: Covered a lot of are but was drawn back at first.
Nedved 6.5: Very active.
Trezeguet 5: Totally invisible.
Del Piero 7: MOM, he did everything, team play, distributing balls and scoring the game winner.

Salihamidzic 4.5: A complete liability
De Ceglie 6: Really good at defending and even better and running forward and crossing. I hope he plays all the time
Amauri: N.R.

Ranieri 6: Started with a good formation bar Molinaro and did good substitutions bar Salihamidzic. Del Piero saved his as again.

 

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[Shockwave]

Don't know why Legro gets overlooked, he has been great if not as good as Chiellini recently. Maybe we do have a quality partnership...

 

[.zero]

im more worried about Trez from today. he only gave 2 handballs to this game! almost invisible!

I wouldn't worry about trezegeut because we all know that he does this all the time. He seems to be "invisible" for a match or 2 but then out of nowhere he scores a hattrick in the 3rd. The key thing is that even if he doesn't score in those matches he is still the opposing defenses primary concern thus leaving more room and opportunities for our other players

 

[JCK]

Poulsen being interviewed.

He speaks really good English.

He said that the goalkeeper was good and denied him a goal. He was asked if that was enough for an encounter like Madrid, he said Madrid is another game. Zenit were tough and we managed take a win.

 

[bullitnuts]

i still can get over that beauty of a goal from DP

 

[DiDoz]

i agree that no one could guess that del piero would save us again but the way the game went gio was not needed.

if we had more posession and did lack creativity despite having the ball often i would say "ok, bring on gio", but in this game we had very few good balls in front so having gio on the pitch would have rendered him useless for the most of the time ...

But if DP's wonder goal wasnt scored, we wouldn't be able to score at all, maybe bringing in Gio isn't the best idea, but Ranieri didn't try to improve our attack, that's what really pissed me off

Trez's substitution should have happened earlier, but it seemed that Ranieri was OK with the draw

 

[blondu]

even if nedved didn't played so well...gotta luv him...his devotion for every ball....his joy.....juve's leone

 

[swag]

if that's zenit's away form i dont even want to think of their home game

Obviously that's going to be an uphill battle. But playing the recent UEFA SuperCup champs at home and winning after a two+ year absence from the CL? I'll take it! This is really a game for the team and fans to savor. We have arrived once again, and we can play with the best of them.

De Ceglie brought thousand times more color to the left wing than Moronaro!

What a great goal by Alex, speechless, he saved Ranieri's arse again. Alex should have scored two goals, especially with Amauri's pass.

Forza Juve!

De Ceglie did wonders over Molinaro that I haven't seen him do prior. That was a critical sub -- and makes you wonder why Moli got the start in the first place.

I would like to do a more thorough game summary, but I'm afraid I can only account for the second half given my struggles (among many) getting a stream. But on these half-match ratings from the second half:

Buffon - Great. Great saves when we needed. Solid performance, even if Zenit was offside at times.

De Ceglie - Good. Some good challenges up the field, got involved on the opposite side or further up the field, and showed great pace and pursuit. He did let a long ball or two get over his head to a Zenit player who made it past him, but nothing too troubling.

Chiellini - Great. Stuffed Arshavin at perhaps the most dangerous moment of the second half for us.

Legro - Good.

Grygera - Good. Not as involved as I'd like in the second half, but did well not to let things through.

Poulsen - OK. He's played better for us. Poor at possession at times.

Sissoko - Good. Great pace and coverage of the entire pitch. But he made some mental mistakes -- taking wild, long shots when we needed possession and to run out the clock. Crossing over the width of the pitch for an unnecessary turnover. Not having too much control at his feet.

Brazzo - Poor. Who?

Nedved - Great. He was an engine out there, covering the pitch and making runs late in the match when I expected him to be dead tired. Will he survive the weekend? Perhaps it's definitely Giovinco time now...

Trez - N/A. Non-existent. Got no real service, but that's not entirely his fault. Rather than a Poor I opted for N/A.

Del Piero - Awesome. Man, he choked on the Amauri cross. But he got really physical in the play right about the time the fortunes changed in the second half. When he started banging it in the paint with Zenit players, things started to turn around on our possession and ball control. Then, of course, the killer free kick that did Zenit in. Big time highlight reel material for the CL in 2008-9... already. You sometimes get those tingles when he steps up, and I got them -- even if I had to scratch my head and think, "But damn, he's a whole 35m out!" Didn't matter. Brilliant.

 

[Esteban]

Didn't get a chance to see the game despite an hour of link hunting. Frustrating but the win makes me feel better. Forza Juventus. :strong:

 

[sacrer]

But if DP's wonder goal wasnt scored, we wouldn't be able to score at all, maybe bringing in Gio isn't the best idea, but Ranieri didn't try to improve our attack, that's what really pissed me off

Trez's substitution should have happened earlier, but it seemed that Ranieri was OK with the draw

But you cant blame him, he ddnt have any choice,
the first substitution was obligatory, the second was a great substitution.. so he couldnt do all 3 subs by 10min into the second half..
I think he did a good job with his subs today.

 

[Kenobi87]

Peew... I didnt think they would get the goal but with a bit of luck and a tricky freekick we got the win...

I think the team played okay - a very fast game but Juve were lacking the last accuracy. I don't understand why they tried playing long balls to the attack. I didn't think it worked very well especially with trezeguet not playing well.

Ratings (1-10)

Buffon: 7,5 Great game with no mistakes. He expressed a lot of confidence and had everything under control.

Molinaro: 4 Bad game... He had some bad situations in defence and couldn't really add much to the offence. Good call from Ranieri to substitute him...

Chiellini: 8 Great game... Nice interceptions, tackles and so on... Nothing to complain about...

Legrottaglie: 7,5 - Same as Chiellini but not as many interceptions, tackles - great heading though...

Grygera: 6,5 Quite a good game. He fought well and made some okay crosses. Nothing spectacular though and he faded a bit in 2. half.

Nedved: 7 He ran and ran and ran - Great to have a fighter like him but his passes wasn't that accurate. He should have created more chances.

Poulsen: 6,5 Good defensive plays. Nice interceptions and tackles but his passings were not to accurate. He made one or two bad passes in the defensice play which could have been dangerous.

Sissoko: 7,5 Fought very well while making many rush up field. Not to many mistakes.

Camoranesi: -- Played very well - very dangerous and created a lot of attacks.

Del Piero: 8 He was the only player besides Camoranesi who created our chances and offensive plays. The russian defence made quite a few freekicks on him and gave him a tough game. Great goal!

Trezeguet: 4 Bad game - Totally invisible during the game. He should have tried more and won more balls.

SUB

Salihamidzic: 6 - He makes to many freekicks. He fought well but he isn't a very good player anymore.

De Ceglie: 7,5 Great game. Many good rush upfield and average defensive play. He's not Chiellini in defence but he was much better than Molinaro - defensive and offensive.

Amauri: ---
:flag:

Anyway --- 3 points - --- I'm smiling

 

[GordoDeCentral]

no reason to celebrate until we hear about Camo's status, if he's out for longer than a couple of weeks our season might just be over unfortunately

 

[.zero]

Chiellini 6.5: Chiellini
Molinaro 4: Useless

If chiellini is described as chiellini then why wasn't moli described as moli?

 

[Kenobi87]

If chiellini is described as chiellini then why wasn't moli described as moli?

HAHA

 

[Marceℓℓo]

no reason to celebrate until we hear about Camo's status, if he's out for longer than a couple of weeks our season might just be over unfortunately

That's very true.

 

[Dominic]

Solid performance against a good team. Let's not forget Zenit's status, great team.

We are pretty bland going forward (especially without Camo), but we are so tough to play against. We may not be the most exciting, but we are certainly frustrating to play.

Buffon 6.5
Grygera 7
Legrottaglie 7
Chiellini 7
Molinaro 2
(De Ceglie 6)
Camoranesi -
(Salihamidzic 5.5)
Sissoko 6.5
Poulsen 6
Nedved 6
Del Piero 7
Trezeguet 5
(Amauri -)

 

[memo]

If chiellini is described as chiellini then why wasn't moli described as moli?

because he was not that bad

 

[Bjerknes]

no reason to celebrate until we hear about Camo's status, if he's out for longer than a couple of weeks our season might just be over unfortunately

True, but if so Ranieri better field Giovinco and not screw around

 

[Orgut]

DP has great matches and medicore ones this one was a great one he dribbled and caused problems to Zenit

The referee was really poor should have awarded Zenit a free kick at the start of the match and should have gave Zenit one or two red cards as they were trying to assassinate our players

You didnt hear them but the Israeli commentators were maybe even worse than the referee

Sissoko was very solid and the ref seems to dislike him as he always whistled against him

Camoranesi got injured I hope its not something serious
we are pretty boring without him as there is no one to create chances unless you consider Nedved falling from a tackle outside the area to create a FK chance for DP

Giovinco didn`t play and he should be given a chance afterall Camoranesi is our only creative mid we have as Nedved is not the golden ball winner anymore...
altough Nedved played quite good

Amauri got in for Trez and I must say he really reminds me of Vieri as Amauri is very strong and has great prescence in the area
If Amauri improves his finishing he should defenitely be considered as a starter

our team closed Zenit very good but still lost concentration on some occasions what make my case stronger (the we need another new CB to partner Chiellini and he has to be a great one and not a medicore free transfer one)
Legro is good but he is not great therefore should be nothing more than a sub

 

[DiDoz]

But you cant blame him, he ddnt have any choice,
the first substitution was obligatory, the second was a great substitution.. so he couldnt do all 3 subs by 10min into the second half..
I think he did a good job with his subs today.

I'm not blaming Trez but I'm blaming Ranieri, if 75 mins have passed and Juve cant creative decent chances against Zenit in a must-win game, Ranieri should enforce our attack