Nedved, Trezeguet See Juve Past Perugia
MILAN, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Second half goals from Pavel Nedved and David
Trezeguet gave Juventus a 2-0 home win over Perugia in Serie A on Saturday.
The victory moved Juve level with third-placed Roma on 20 points ahead of
Sunday's games which see champions Roma at home to bottom-club Venezia.
Perugia had to play for over an hour with 10-men after their defender
Manuele Blasi was sent off in the 24th minute for a second yellow-card after
he fouled Alessandro Del Piero.
After an impressive 4-0 Champions League win over Bayer Leverkusen on
Thursday, Juve were looking to keep up the momentum ahead of their trip to
London to face Group D opponents Arsenal on Tuesday and delivered a solid
performance.
Marcello Lippi's side were on top from the outset with Nedved twice forcing
good low saves out of Perugia keeper Andrea Mazzantini and Del Piero going
close with a fine long range effort that Mazzantini tipped just over the
bar.
The dismissal of Blasi tipped the game even further in Juve's direction but
it was not until the 52nd minute that they found the breakthrough when
Nedved rose to head home a Del Piero corner to claim his first league goal
since joining Juve from Lazio in the summer.
In-form Trezeguet put the match beyond Perugia with a text-book header from
a Christian Zenoni cross in the 76th minute - the French striker's 15th goal
in all competitions this season.
Despite Nedved having finally found the target for Juve, the Czech
international said he was more pleased with how his team appear to have put
a shaky run of form behind them.
'I don't think it is so important (that I scored), the main thing is the
result. It was not easy against Perugia, who even though they lost a man,
showed themselves to be a very organised side.
'We are looking above all for consistency and these two wins this week are
part of that,' said Nedved.
Juve coach Marcello Lippi said his side had shown no signs of fatigue with
their second game in three days.
'All the players are in good condition both physically and mentally,' said
Lippi. 'We keep talking about the need for consistency and the side produced
that tonight - that was very important. Now we have to get ready for a big
game on Tuesday in London.'
