Better Late Than Never For Juve
Posted: Wednesday March 17, 1999 06:35 PM
Late Conte goal against Olympiakos moves club on
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Antonio Conte scored in the 85th minute to give Juventus a 1-1 draw with Olympiakos Piraeus on Wednesday, sending the Italian club to the semifinals of the Champions Cup on 3-2 aggregate.
Juventus beat Olympiakos 2-1 in the first-leg match in Turin two weeks ago, with Conte scoring the winning goal.
Olympiakos' Serbian striker Sinisa Sinica Gogic pulled the two level overall with a 12th-minute strike. It looked all over for Juventus before Conte struck with a close-range shot from a pass by Filippo Inzaghi.
"We had problems at the beginning of the game, but we answered back," Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "At the end of the day we deserved to advance. We had the luck with us tonight, which is always something you need."
Olympiakos was more aggressive from the start of the game, coming close to scoring on two occasions.
Gogic passed to Predrag Djordjevic inside the visitors' area, but a powerful shot went wide in the fifth minute. One minute later, Gogic received a long pass into the area and beat a defender, but his shot went wide, scraping past the right post.
In another attack by the hosts, Grigoris Georgatos centered from the left, Gogic jumped high to gain the ball from Paolo Montero and sent it into the goalmouth.
In the 50th minute, goalkeeper Dimitris Eleftheropoulos made a save with his foot on a corner taken by French star Zinedine Zidane.
Eleven minutes later, it was Rampulla's turn to make a spectacular save to a header from three meters (yards) by Giorgos Amanatidis off a center from Georgatos.
Five minutes before the end of the match, Alessandro Birindelli centered from the right, Filippo Inzaghi gained the ball in the area, passed it to Conte who ad no difficulty to score the goal that gave Juventus a berth in the semifinals.
Olympiakos coach Dusan Bajevic said Juventus played forward in the second half because "they had nothing to lose ... we made one error, which was costly."
