9.11.2003
Juventus - Udinese 4 - 1
Posted by Alex | Football Italia
Alessandro Del Piero missed a penalty on his comeback, but his replacements turned the game around and Juve break away at the top.
Del Piero made his comeback seven weeks after tearing a calf muscle and was also able to celebrate his 29th birthday.
There were chances for both sides during the first half, Gianluigi Buffon blocking a fierce Marek Jankulovski effort, while Stephan Appiah and Alessio Tacchinardi saw deflected long-range drives whistle wide of the woodwork.
Mark Iuliano brought a tough save out of Morgan De Sanctis when his header looped towards the top corner.
Czech international Jankulovski has been linked to a summer move to Juventus and showed them what he can do as Buffon rushed off his line to charge down a dangerous counter-attack.
The Italian Number 1 then flew to fingertip a sweeping Martin Jorgensen effort round the post.
De Sanctis was once the understudy to Buffon at the Delle Alpi and made a splendid double save on Gianluca Zambrotta's piledriver and David Trezeguet's follow-up.
Both sides struggled to break through and Mauro Camoranesi saw a goal correctly disallowed for an offside position at the dawn of the second half.
There was an extremely controversial moment on 54 minutes when Juventus were awarded a penalty. Nicola Legrottaglie's header struck Valerio Bertotto on the shoulder blades and then arm, but the Udinese defender was unlikely to have done it on purpose as he was facing the other way.
Nonetheless, Udinese's protests were waved away and Alessandro Del Piero stepped up, but his fierce drive thumped the crossbar. It was his first real effort since suffering a calf strain in September and he was clearly not 100 per cent fit.
That was a costly error, as soon after Udinese were awarded a penalty when Buffon rushed off his line to hack down Dino Fava. The goalkeeper was booked for the intervention and Marek Jankulovski slammed in a powerful spot-kick to give the Friulani a shock lead.
The on-form Di Vaio replaced Del Piero, who could not give himself a birthday gift with that penalty, and Juve poured forward en masse to find an equaliser.
Udinese battened down the hatches and charged down efforts from Di Vaio, Trezeguet and Tacchinardi..
It proved to be an inspired substitution as Di Vaio drew Juventus level with a stunning header. The ex-Parma man leapt above his marker to place the most accurate finish on to the base of the upright and ricocheted in.
Di Vaio nearly netted a second soon after with a low drive that went wide of the near post.
Fabrizio Miccoli also came on and bagged the last-gasp winner as Udinese crumbled under a late siege. Di Vaio's shot was only parried into the path of fellow substitute Miccoli for a close-range tap-in.
The Bianconeri were irresistable and made the result safe in the final minutes with Nedved's fine slide-rule ball for Di Vaio's run at the far post.
David Trezeguet completed the rout in stoppage time when Nedved's pass found him unmarked on the six-yard box.
Juventus: Buffon; Thuram, Legrottaglie, Iuliano, Zambrotta (Tudor 80); Appiah, Tacchinardi, Camoranesi (Miccoli 71); Nedved; Del Piero (Di Vaio 63), Trezeguet
Udinese: De Sanctis; Bertotto, Sensini, Pierini; Pinzi, Pazienza, Jankulovski, Manfredini, Castroman (Pieri 71); Jorgensen, Fava
Ref: Pieri
Missed penalty: Del Piero 56 (J)
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Not entirely true though, we sold De Sanctis even before we got Van der Sar I think. He was Peruzzi's understudy.
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