Juventus hot on trail of United

JUVENTUS got the result they wanted going into the winter break in the Champions’ League at an appropriately snowy Stadio del’ Alpi last night when they comfortably saw off FC Basel on a 4-0 scoreline.

The Italian side got a dream start when French international David Trezeguet, making his first full start of the season for Juve, scored after three minutes. Birendelli had forced a corner off Esposito and Trezeguet got on the end of Iuliano’s flick to put the Swiss on the back foot right from the off. Underfoot conditions in Turin were not easy for either side and the ground staff had done an excellent job making the pitch playable because only an hour before kick-off it was under a heavy layer of snow and when the match began, an orange ball had to be used because of the conditions.

However, that did not faze the home side and they were initially willing to allow time and space to their visitors. But, on 34 minutes Basel were dealt a cruel blow when, against the run of play, a Del Piero free-kick was only parried onto the crossbar by Zuberbuhler and Montero poked in the rebound. Then, on 43 minutes, Juventus really killed the game off and once again it was a defensive error which let them in. Del Piero had slid the ball to Davids in the Basel area and although his cross was blocked, Tacchinardi intercepted Zwyssig’s clearence and scored a beauty from 25 metres to give the home side a 3-0 half time advantage. They killed it off just after half-time when Del Piero found Nedved in the Basel area and he was fouled by Esposito. From the resultant penaly Del Piero himself made it 4 0.]

Juventus are now three points clear of Deportivo in Group D and two behind pool leaders Manchester United.

In the night’s other Champions’ League games in Group C, the real shock came at the Bernabeau where Real Madrid were held to a 2-2 draw by Lokomotiv Moscow. A loss would have put the title holders in a terrible situation, but they at least salvaged something from a game in which they trailed 2-1 at one stage.

On 21 minutes the game sparked into life. Pimenov was played through but Casillas in the Real goal saved well and from the clearence Madrid raced up the pitch and Raul latched onto a slide rule pass, turned inside Evseev and squeezed the ball past Ovchinnikov from an acute angle for his 36 European goal. Madrid appeared to have everything under control but as the game went into the second half, James Obriorah, on for Lokomotiv in place of Julio Cesar, wriggled into the area before playing the ball off Pavon’s shins and then stabbing it home.

Madrid laid seige to the Moscow goal, but on 74 minutes and against the run of play Mnguni jinked into the Madrid area and crashed a low shot past Cassilas. Two minute later and Real were level. Oovchinnikov funbled a cross from Figo and Raul equalised. Once more Madrid piled on the pressure,l but it ended 2-2. In Dortmund AC Milan gained revenge for their 4 0 humiliation there last season when they beat the German side 0 1. In a very tightly fought match it was a 49th minute Inzaghi goal which secured the points for the Italians. He raced onto Clarence Seedorf’s through ball and, with the defence waiting in vain for the offside flag to go up, Inzaghi beat Lehmann for his ninth Cahmpions’ league goal of the season.

The result puts Milan in complete control of Group C with six points, while Dortmund have three and Real and Lokomotiv one each.