Juventus vs Sampdoria

 

Juventus: Buffon; Birindelli (Almiron 82), Legrottaglie, Grygera, Molinaro; Marchionni (Palladino 73), Salihamidzic, Zanetti, Nedved; Del Piero (Iaquinta 46), Trezeguet

Sampdoria: รางวัลยูเวนตุส, Gastaldello, Accardi, Maggio; Palombo, Sammarco (Delvecchio 22), Franceschini, Pieri; Bellucci, Bonazzoli (Volpi 80)

This was a game that started very brightly but petered quite badly as the second half was extremely poor with both sides very lacking in true creative quality.

Juventus had the first clear opening of the match when Buffon hit a corner kick and it was collected by Del Piero, who turned his marker and then played the ball to Nedved, and he hit his marker and made Trezeguet scream for a cut, but he chose to play the ball instead of Marchionni, but he avoided missing the best chance of the game by hitting the ball over the crossbar as it seemed easier to score from approx. 6 yards out.

Sampdoria were just happy to defend by placing many bodies behind the ball and they were quite lucky to reach half on parity as they were totally overplayed and had just 1 chance as Maggio was his post from a corner kick.

Molinaro delivered 1 of his very few decent posts throughout the match as he played in a beauty that Trezeguet just missed the target with after a deep side-by-side attempt.

Juventus thought they had taken the lead as there was confusion in the Sampdoria penalty area resulting in Trezeguet twice in the second having ricochets saved on the line, but the second attempt was pretty close to crossing the line.

Trezeguet had again another crossbar kick hit the crossbar and it was about as good as it got throughout the match as the second half was really awful.

I expected Juventus manager Claudio Ranieri to make a change at half-time, but I never expected him to take his captain Alessandro Del Piero off, but that was exactly what he did and the quality of the game followed. with Del Piero as his successor Vicenzo Iaquinta does bring much more pace and effort, but nothing like the quality.

Marco Marchionni could have added one to the visitors' lead if his free kick had gone just a little lower.

Sampdoria played much better in the second half, at least in the first quarter of it, before settling for a draw and starting to annoy Juventus fans by continually celebrating injury. If the referee added 10 minutes extra time, it would have been justified as their time-wasting tactics were appalling.

But honestly, Juventus did not do enough to win the game and lack a lot in the creative department, and the manager has to arrest the particular problem as their big start to the season falls flat if he continues with this set of players.

Hasan Salihamidic may be a very versatile player, but the 1 thing he is not is a central midfielder and it is understandable that Tiago and Almiron have been massively disappointing, but they would certainly have given more in the central midfield.

Ratings

Buffon 5.5 He did not have much to do as Sampdoria offered very little going forward, but the little he had to do he did well enough. He was only seriously tested by Maggio's header, which grazed his post and went for a goal kick.

Birindelli 5 He offers absolutely nothing forward as he can not cross the ball and can not get past his markers. He was not really tested as a defender because Sampdoria did not attack, and when he was in Sampdoria's penalty kick attempt, he tried a rather ambitious overhead kick.

Molinaro 5.5 He is not a favorite among Juventus fans and you can understand their frustrations as most of his attempts at posts were played directly to his immediate opponent. He was to learn to beat the first man either by cheating or putting more thought into his crosses. When he said he was good defensively and delivered a couple of good posts that he would feel his teammates should have done better with.

Grygera 5.5 He did nothing spectacular, and there were no sharp errors from him, but Sampdoria again lacked ambition.

Legrottaglie 6 He mixed good play with elemental errors as he could just give the ball to an opponent in a very dangerous area for absolutely no reason at all and under no pressure but he uses his pace to get him out of trouble.

Marchionni 5 He did not have a really good start with his dazzling miss and it just went downhill from there with him as he had no influence at all. He claimed a penalty kick in the second half, but repetition showed quite clearly that Franceschini got the ball in the penalty area.