A 2-0 victory in the end for Juventus, but don't be deceived by the scoreline, it was a tough fight and Novara had no intention of rolling over. This was the first Piedmonte derby in recent years and because of that, there was a little more to it than just the points..it was also about pride. Juve started the game with more control and presence and were shortly rewarded with their first goal when Simone Pepe got on the end of a fabulous cross by Paolo De Ceglie to put them up on the fourth minute. After that Juve felt more in control and thus relaxed ever so slightly. Throughout the game Juve had as expected over 60% possession but they still could put the game to bed till the 75th minute when Quagliarella got his first goal in almost a year and equals the 100 mark.
All credit must go to Novara for frustrating the home side and even putting them under pressure at times. Novara had 14 shots with only 3 on goal to Juve's 26 shots with 12 on goal. What should be taken from these stats is that Juve need to be more clinical upfront, however the Novara goalkeeper; Samir Ujkani has to be given all the credit as he stopped Del Piero from scoring his first goal of the season and holding off wave after wave of Juve attacks.
By the end of the first half and during the second half you could see the frustration starting to bubble over as the game started to introduce more and more niggling fouls and Giorgio Chiellini getting a bit too "eager" with the ball, and if this was a less lenient ref, we might have seen more cards , yet miraculously only 3 yellow cards were produced. What was slightly alarming to see in this game was how the Juve players would surround the ref every time a decision didn't go their way, I would expect this from the likes of Inter not from The Old Lady.
An important three point ahead of the game in Udine, let's just hope this winning momentum can endure the new year!
No comments:
Post a Comment