Juventus 2 - Fiorentina 1
Saturday 16th February 2002
Juventus went to the top of Serie A for 24 hours at least after a less-than-impressive 2-1 home win against ten-man Fiorentina.
The result gave coach Marcello Lippi his first triumph against Fiorentina boss Ottavio Bianchi and put the Turin side two points ahead of Roma who play Brescia on Sunday.
The league strugglers had the better of the opening exchanges and midfielder Roberto Baronio almost put the Viola ahead on three minutes with a stunning long-range shot.
However, it was Juventus who opened the scoring through striker David Trezeguet on 11 minutes; his adroit turn and shot was the France international's 15th league goal of the season.
The lead only lasted four minutes when Fiorentina's on-loan striker from Internazionale, Adriano, latched on to a Domenico Morfeo through-ball to coolly round Gigi Buffon in the Juve goal, for the equaliser.
It was the first time in 531 minutes that the Italy No 1 had conceded a goal at the Stadio Delle Alpi, but he did not have to wait long for the home side to restore their advantage.
Alessandro Del Piero steered home a loose ball on the half-hour mark after goalkeeper Alex Manninger kept out Gianluca Pessotto's thunderous drive.
Lippi obviously had one eye on next week's Champions' League encounter against Deportivo La Coruna, as he rang the changes at half-time, with Paolo Montero and Gianluca Zambrotta making way for Michele Paramatti and Edgar Davids.
It was the introduction of Fiorentina substitute Ezequiel Gonzalez, however, that almost changed the course of the game, as the young Argentinian striker caused the Juventus numerous problems.
On 60 minutes the 21-year-old twisted past three defenders before testing Buffon with a snap-shot and six minutes later Adriano shot wide with Morfeo free in the middle.
The rising tension in the final quarter got to Fiorentina defender Andrea Tarozzi, who received a red card for elbowing Juve midfielder Pavel Nedved.
Juventus: Buffon, Thuram, Montero (Paramatti 46), Ferrara, Pessotto, Zambrotta (Davids 46), Conte, Tacchinardi, Nedved (Maresca 90), Del Piero, Trezeguet
Fiorentina: Manninger, Torricelli, Pierini, Ceccarelli, Tarozzi, Di Livio, Baronio (Palumbo 46), Amaral (Gonzalez 55), Amoroso, Morfeo (Ganz 82), Adriano
Referee: G Borriello
Booked: Tacchinardi (Juventus)
Sent off: Tarozzi (Fiorentina)
