Last-Gasp Penalty Rocks Juventus
Copyright � 1998 Nando.net
Copyright � 1998 Reuters
TURIN, Italy (March 3, 1999 5:19 p.m. EST http://www.sportserver.com) - Juventus earned a hollow 2-1 Champions League victory over Olympiakos here on Wednesday night after being suckered by a Greek penalty in the seventh minute of injury time.
Juventus could have won by a tennis score if their finishing had been up to the mark. Filippo Inzaghi could easily have bagged a hat-trick before the striker finally hammered the ball home in the 38th minute.
And French World Cup star Zinedine Zidane missed another two sitters after the break before skipper Antonio Conte rifled home the second with barely 10 minutes to spare.
It looked to be all over until the Greeks' two late substitutes came up trumps in the final seconds.
Throwing themselves forward in one last desperate assault on Angelo Peruzzi's goal, Alexios Alexandris got the ball in a goalmouth scramble and started to go round the Italian national goalkeeper.
Peruzzi hauled him down and was booked before Andreas Niniadis, who had only come on at the start of injury-time, stepped up to lash the ball into the right hand corner of the net.
When the referee blew the whistle, almost immediately afterwards, the Greek players all held their arms aloft in a victory celebration -- knowing that a 1-0 win in Athens will now propel them into the semi-finals.
But if Olympiakos have that chance to turn the quarter-final around in the second leg in a fortnight's time, it's also down to their outstanding goalkeeper and man-of-the-match, Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos.
