Half Time: Messina 0 - 0 Juventus
Stadio San Filippo
Messina rattled the woodwork in an entertaining first half, but Juve also had good chances with Alessandro Del Piero.
This tie had not been played in the top flight for more than 40 years, but Juventus had never won in Sicily. Fabio Capello was forced to do without Pavel Nedved and David Trezeguet, so he switched to a 5-3-2 system with Alessandro Del Piero partnering Zlatan Ibrahimovic upfront and Gianluca Zambrotta and Jonathan Zebina pushing forward from the flanks.
Massimo Donati's tame effort went wide of the near post, then Del Piero curled a couple of free kicks just over the bar. The Juve captain latched on to Zambrotta's cutback and fired it past the upright with the outside of his foot.
The Bianconeri's best chance came after 25 minutes when Marco Storari could only beat away a fierce Del Piero effort, then Ibrahimovic failed to make the most of the loose ball by hitting it straight into the goalkeeper's arms.
Play continued and at the other end of the pitch Arturo Di Napoli's penalty appeals for a Lilian Thuram nudge were waved away.
However, Messina could not have gone closer to opening the lead than on the half-hour mark. Gaetano D'Agostino's free kick found Riccardo Zampagna's diving header and the ball smashed off the near post with Gigi Buffon left stranded.
There were more spot-kick appeals when Di Napoli and Zampagna wrestled with two defenders for the ball around the six yard box.
Moments later Del Piero sprinted through the centre and cut through for Emerson, but just as Ibrahimovic was preparing to pounce on Rahman Rezaei's clearance, Marco Storari smothered the danger.
Buffon did well to hold his ground and get behind a powerful long-range strike from Zampagna, then Di Napoli scissor-kicked a D'Agostino cross wide, though the linesman had already flagged for offside.
On the stroke of half-time, Rezaei left Del Piero unmarked to chest down a searching free kick, but his half-volley was off target.
Andre Kpolo Zoro and Mauro Camoranesi had a scuffle just before the break and the defender was booked for his reaction, but replays show the Juventus player had kicked out in an off the ball incident.
Messina: Storari; Zoro, Rezaei, Cristante, Parisi; Iliev, Zanchi, D'Agostino, Donati; Zampagna, Di Napoli
Juventus: Buffon; Zebina, Thuram, Montero, Cannavaro, Zambrotta; Camoranesi, Emerson, Blasi; Del Piero, Ibrahimovic
Ref: Farina
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