Juventus v Deportivo: Italians Down and Out

By Sunshine
March 10 2004

Deportivo came to Turin to do a job and did just that, eliminating last years’ runners up by adding an away win to the one they managed at home a couple of weeks ago.

Juventus have not, over the years, had the success in Europe that the quality of their squads deserve and yet again, last night, were unceremoniously dumped out of Europe’s main club tournament.

Further down the page I’ll list the main points from the game, this being a match report and all, but before doing so, I’ll comment the game and Juventus’ negative moment in particular

The omens were not good. Juventus have been struggling of late. On Saturday they were two-nil down away to minnows Brescia at half time before the referee and linesmen handed them more ‘Get out of Jail Free’ cards than you’ll find in a boxed Monopoly set (a dubious penalty, allowing a goal which was blatantly off-side, waving away a dead cert penalty and then stopping a Brescia player who would have been clean through on goal for an off-side which never was)., with Juventus turning the tables in the second half and claiming all three points with a 3-2 win.

That was good for the league table, but only papered over the cracks in a team going through a very poor patch. Add to that the fact that for the Deportivo game five players were missing (of the calibre of Trezeguet, Zambrotta, Birindelli, Iuliano and Tudor) through injury and Conte through suspension and you can already imagine the uphill battle facing the Italian champions.

As if those absences were not enough, Del Piero, captain and leader of the team, had to be substituted on 9 minutes after picking up a suspected calf strain which may even result in him missing out on Euro 2004).

Three minutes later, Montero, the experienced Uruguayan central defender, ran his hands over his face like you do in the mornings, with water, in order to wake yourself up properly and seconds later a harmless ball was pumped towards him from a Deportivo player. It looked easy enough to deal with, but for some inexplicable reason, Montero didn’t deal with it and Pandiani, the Depor striker, latched onto the ball. In came Ferrara, the other centre back and Montero managed to get a foot to the ball, but that only resulted in teeing it up for Pandiani whoo struck a sweet left foot shot which Buffon in goal could do nothing about. 1-nil to Depor and Juve found themselves needing to score three.

What then happened has finally convinced me that it is time to introduce technology to assist match officials: Over the course of the remainder of the first half, four off-sides were wrongly given against Juventus players and on at least three of these occasions, had the game been allowed to continue, Di Vaio or Miccoli (the Juve forwards) would have found themselves one on one with Molina, the Deportivo keeper.

Don’t get me wrong, Juventus deserved to be eliminated by Deportivo, but that isn’t the point: For one of the offside decisions, the Juve forward was being kept onside by three Deportivo defenders, three! I’m not suggesting in the slightest that the linesman made those wrong decisions on purpose, but even though offsides are difficult to get right, he is obviously incompetent and doesn’t adhere in the slightest to the directives of football’s governing body (one of which states that when in doubt, keep your flag down).

On another note, I was interested to see the amount of playacting on behalf of some of the Deportivo players. Everyone (the Spanish in particular) are always laying into Italian football for its negative tactics and cheating, yet Deportivo clearly showed last night that they have nothing to learn. Pandiani and Valeron were the most obvious culprits and the look of sheer agony on their faces after some tackles would have impressed me, had I been a casting director. The most ‘amusing’ incident came in the second half when a ‘maimed’ Pandiani had to leave the pitch distraught and incapable of standing, only to miraculously recover and wave furiously to the referee to be given permission to re-join the game the second play had resumed.

This behaviour is part and parcel of the modern game, but the words pot, kettle and black spring to mind.

Anyway, the suits at Juve will have much work to do in the summer in order to rejuvenate the defence in particular, whilst Deportivo can go into the Quarter Finals of the Champions League brimming with confidence, having knocked out one of the favourites for the competition. Well done to them.

My last comment concerns Juve’s season: If they don’t win at home to Milan next Sunday, their season is all but over. They’d still have the Italian Cup Final to play for, but it is considered very much a minor competition in Italy, a bit like the League Cup in England. Their fans will not be happy.

As promised, here are the main points:

First Half.

7th min. - Del Piero picks up a suspected calf strain and finally gets replaced by Miccoli on 9 minutes

12th min. – GOAL! Montero makes a hash of clearing a harmless ball and Pandiani smacks the ball past a helpless Buffon: 1-nil La Coruna.

13th min. – Miccoli offside (poor decision).

17th min. – Di Vaio does some great work on the left and cuts the ball back into the penalty area. Miccoli slips, but Camoranesi arrives at pace: Just wide. Great chance goes begging.

23rd min. – Nedved just can’t get his foot to a through ball by Camoranesi with only the keeper to beat.

24th min. – Thuram to Di Vaio, offside given (poor decision).

26th min. – Camoranesi to Miccoli, ludicrous offside decision (three Deportivo defenders playing the Juve striker onside).

27th min. – Excellent acrobatical attempt on goal by Pandiani, goes wide.

30th min. – Legrottaglie through to Di Vaio, again a doubtful offside decision given.

38th min. – Camoranesi and Miccoli combine, with the latter putting in a good right foot effort which Molina saves.

39th min. – Di Vaio offside and the joke has started to wear a bit thin.

40th min. – Luque shoots wide for Deportivo.

41st min. – Juve again, Camoranesi (the most in form player for the home team) and Miccoli combine, leading to Nedved (who was uncharacteristically rubbish all night) bangs a right foot shot which Molina saves.

Second Half.

46th min. – Pessotto on for legrottaglie (who is having a nightmare).

55th min. – Pandiani fouled by Ferrara. The Deportivo player is in agony and onlookers would be excused for thinking this tackle could be career threatening. As soon as play restarts, Pandiani chomps at the bit on the sidelines in order to get back onto the pitch. People will start flocking to his house instead of going to Lourdes….

62nd min. – Fran comes on for Luque for Depor.

64th min. – Nedved wins a freekick and Miccoli forces Molina into a good save which results in a corner.

65th min. – Miccoli takes the corner himself and Ferrara heads the ball inches wide: It just isn’t Juve’s night.

66th min. – Appiah hits and hopes from 30 yards: The ball strikes the cross bar to the right of the beaten keeper.

67th min. – A water sprinkler goes off and interrupts the game for a minute.

68th min. – Miccoli hits a powerful shot on the run, but it flies about half a yard from the top left hand corner of the goal.

70th min. – Young hopeful Chiumiento comes on for Camoranesi.

77th min. – Argentine midfielder Duscher replaces Valeron for Deportivo.

82nd min. – Pandiani, La Coruna’s goal hero, leaves the field and Tristan comes on.

90th min. – Di Vaio again the victim of a dubious offside decision, but Juve had already all but given up hope on the match 10 minutes ago.

93rd min. – Deportivo hit the bar, but the match was over as a contest long before this last incident occurred.

Juventus played badly on the night and were without many first choice players, but they still had chances to score, which is testament to their ability. Had the linesman been competent, it may have been a very different story. That said (and it needed to be said), as mentioned earlier, Deportivo thoroughly deserved to go through to the next round.