Giggs to the Rescue for Man U
Posted: Wednesday April 07, 1999 05:28 PM
Late goal earns Champions Cup draw with Juventus
MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- Ryan Giggs fired home an injury-time equalizer as Manchester United hit back for a 1-1 draw with Juventus in the semifinal first leg of their European Champions Cup match on Wednesday.
Antonio Conte had fired Juventus closer to its fourth Champions Cup final in a row with a 25th-minute goal.
The midfielder, who helped his club win its quarterfinal match against Greek champion Olympiakos with a late goal, silenced 55,000 United fans at Old Trafford.
But Giggs knocked the ball home as the game went into injury time and the two teams go into the second leg April 21 all square.
"I think Juentus were outstanding in the first half with their counterattacks," said Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. "They were at us in a flash and gave us a real hard time.
"But this result still gives us a great chance. If we had performed like we did in the second half in the first it would have been better."
Zinedine Zidane, playing with his right knee heavily strapped, tried to lob United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel in the second minute but his shot sailed well over the bar.
Filippo Inzaghi, Juve's main hope in attack in the continued absence of Alessandro Del Piero, almost gave the Old Lady the lead in the 15th minute.
He collected a ball from the right and turned to fire left-footed only for Schmeichel, the Danish 'keeper he beat in last week's European Championship qualifying game, to dive low to his right and tip the ball around the post.
United replied with David Beckham's 22-yard free kick, which shaved the post with goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi beaten. But Conte stunned the home team by giving the Italian titlist the lead.
Edgar Davids fed the ball through after taking an inside pass from Zidane and Conte needed one touch to put himself clear and into a shooting position. With the United defense behind him, Conte fired left-footed across Schmeichel and inside the far post.
It should have been 2-0 in the 38th minute when another move instigated by Zidane ended in a pass out to the overlapping Gianluca Pessotto, who had plenty of time to shoot but curled his shot wide of the far post.
And, seconds before halftime, Inzaghi almost added another when, under pressure from Gary Neville, he prodded a rightwing cross just wide of the near post.
United looked to create more after the break although the Juve defense again stood firm.
Peruzzi dived to his left to hold a well-struck 25-yard shot from Roy Keane and Paul Scholes shot wide in a scramble in front of goal in which the ball also hit the arm of Juve defender Mark Iuliano.
At the other end, Conte set up a shooting chance for Zidane who fired across the face of the United goal with only Schmeichel to beat.
United sent on Teddy Sheringham for Tobagan international Dwight Yorke and the veteran striker was celebrating an equalizer after deflecting home Keane's shot when he turned to see the linesman flagging for offside.
And, a minute from time, Peruzzi saved a close range header from Scholes.
Juve appeared headed for a well-deserved victory when Beckham hooked in a cross from the right. Several players went up and the ball twice bounced off heads before it ran to the unmarked Giggs who fired into the roof of the net from barely five yards.
Eight Juve players went into the game with yellow cards and one, Yugoslav defender Zoran Mirkovic, saw another which means he misses the second leg.
