Cagliari V Juventus

A game that was not as easy as the score-line might suggest, this was a plucky Cagliari side that were not at all intimidated by their opponent's. A little bit of luck and some odd referring decisions helped the Bianconeri and they were crowned Winter Champions. But above all Alessandro got on the score sheet twice! Hopefully this will boost his confidence, and if Juve don't get the " big name striker", it wont matter as much.

The big news ahead of the game besides where it was going to be played, was the fact that Giorgio Chiellini was going to be out for 2-3 months. Chiellini is such a rock in that back three that it was going to be a challenge to play without him. Instead we had Martin Caceras, he had only started five games so far and you could see why, he was seen to be a little unsure on the ball and did give the ball away a number of times. A little slack was due, as he hadn't played and was noticeable rusty. One was a little confused as why the youngster Luca Morrone was not given a shot, he had played in the centre of defence before and had the energy and enthusiasm to go against this fiery side from Sardinia.

Juventus started this game at a surpising tempo, not as high as we have become accustomed and Cagliari were surprisingly organised and quick of the mark. They were so quick in fact, they were the first to score on 16 minutes. It was a well taken penalty by Mauriscio Pinilla, Gigi Buffon went in the right direction but could do nothing to stop the ball from flying past him into the net.

Juve did all they could to get back into the game but it became obvious that some changes had to be made as they were losing the ball in midfield to easily. The pressure was all Juve as they had a whopping 66% possession, and they did try and make it count with 30 shots and 10 of them were goal bound. Yet it was some fine saves by Micheal Agazzi that helped keep Cagliari in front.

In the second half The Old Lady player with more urgency and were helped a little when Davide Astori got his second yellow card and was given his marching orders in the 64th minute. The home side had a lot to do anyway but now with 10 men it was going to be difficult to say the least! Juve were in the ascendancy and they had an opportunity to level the scoring in the 71st minute when a Cagliari player was deemed to have tripped Sebastian Giovinco. Arturo Vidal stepped up to take the penalty, but he ballooned it over the crossbar.

Yet they didn't have to worry about it too long as Alessandro Matri was on hand to score against his old club. Nearly all the second half was played in the attacking half and with 6 added minutes it the perfect chance to break the wall of Cagliari players, and it was Matri again and just to add a cherry on top, Mirku Vucinic scored the third.

It may have took them a while to get started, but when they did it was like poetry in motion!