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| November 30, 2001 | Friday | Ramazan 14, 1422 |
Juventus rout Leverkusen
TURIN (Italy), Nov 29: Italy’s Juventus thrashed Bayer Leverkusen of Germany 4-0 Thursday at the Stadio Delle Alpi to get off to a perfect start in their first second-phase Group D Champions League match.
The match, played at the third time of asking after twice being postponed for fog, was one-way traffic with Juve romping to a 3-0 interval lead thanks to goals from David Trezeguet, Alessandro Del Piero and Igor Tudor.
After the break the outstanding Trezeguet added his second to post a personal club tally of 14 goals in all club matches this season.
Leverkusen looked disorientated but Juventus were quickly into their stride and defender Alessandro Birindelli forced an early save from Hans-Jorg Butt. After eight minutes Trezeguet put the hosts in front.
A cross was head back across goal by Del Piero and Leverkusen defender Jens Nowotny headed the ball up into the air. The Frenchman was first to react and beat Butt to the ball to head the opener.
Ulf Kirsten and Oliver Neuville both failed to hit the target when well placed for Leverkusen while at the other end Del Piero fired high after losing his marker with a brilliant piece of skill.
Birindelli was cautioned after 24 minutes for a foul on Bayer’s Brazilian winger Ze Roberto but after 37 minutes Juve made it 2-0.
A ball from Lilian Thuram caught the German defence square and Trezeguet advanced, drew Butt and slipped the ball sideways to Del Piero who scored.
Del Piero, with Gianluca Pessotto one of two survivors of the Juve team that won this competition in 1995-6, immediately ran across to thank Trezeguet for setting him up on a plate.
With half-time approaching Juve turned up the heat. Birindelli’s centre was perfect for Trezeguet who headed goalwards but Butt denied him, tipping the ball behind for a corner.
But the goal was not long in coming. A Del Piero corner was miscued by Mark Iuliano and looked as if it was going out but Alessio Tacchinardi put it back in the danger zone with an acrobatic overhead kick and Tudor reacted quickly to fire home from close range.
The second half began in lacklustre fashion with Juve’s Nedved and Leverkusen’s Michael Ballack booked in separate incidents but on the hour mark it was 4-0 to the side from Turin.
It was a well-worked goal. Pessotto played in Czech Pavel Nedved on the left and his cross was met first time by Trezeguet whose volley found the corner of the net via Butt’s fingertips.
Minutes later Trezeguet missed a glorious chance to make it a hat-trick when he miscued wide after good work by Del Piero. The Frenchman was later replaced by Nicola Amoruso.—AFP
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