Juventus Beat Inter and Fly With Lazio
By Diego Antonelli
(http://www.gazzetta.it)
Ancelotti�s team beat Lippi�s boys with one goal by Pippo Inzaghi and stay on their own with Lazio at the top of the table.
An expectant wait for this evening�s meeting between Juventus and Inter at the Delle Alpi stadium. A wait justified by the two teams� position in the table, by the record of Lippi�s side and by the recent disputed trials of the two teams. In the end the three points went to Juventus who played a great game, stubbornly defending their well-deserved lead even with 10 men against 11.
The 3rd minute saw the first black-and-white incursion into the
black-and-blue area. Inzaghi came in with the ball at his feet, bringing it down almost to the goal line and put an insidious low ball into the centre for Del Piero, but the Inter defenders shut it down well and put the ball back into play. Juventus developed and Inter were suffering under the pressure from Ancelotti�s team. In the 8th minute the last defender, Montero, lost his grip disastrously in his own midfield. Zamorano was quick to get hold of the ball and set his sights on the Juventus goal. Van Der Sar made a desperate exit, but the ball went straight into Zamorano�s legs and he fell to the ground in pain. Tombolini gave a foul from the edge of the box and limited himself to warning the Juventus keeper. The black-and-blues protested vigorously, claiming a penalty and a sending-off, and they were probably right about the latter, but Tombolini was immovable. The free kick was taken by Panucci and was blocked by the wall.
Juventus replied immediately, in the 11th minute, with Del Piero who tried a surprise shot from the edge of the area which was well out. Meanwhile Inter were working things out and around the quarter-hour mark moved the axis of the game into their opponents midfield. Zidane and Del Piero came to a very dangerous understanding in the 20th minute, passing back and forth in the centre of the pitch until they reached Inter�s area, but Panucci was well on guard. He recovered the ball and restarted the action. However, the moment was black and white. Del Piero picked up the ball straight away and took off on a counterattack on the left. Blanc tried to stay on with Panucci following. Del Piero got into the area and let fly with a murderous low ball for the alert Inzaghi. Fresi spotted the Juventus player�s arrival too late and Peruzzi was helpless before his shot. Juventus were ahead. The play was an exact copy of that attempted by Inzaghi in the 3rd minute and was tried again in the 25th by Inzaghi for
Del Piero and in the 26th in a slightly modified version (Del Piero to Inzaghi, but with a vertical passage). The Inter defence was in tatters.
Vieri got a great chance in the 28th minute when he was served by Zamorano right at the limit of offside, but the attacker tried the powerful solution and Van Der Sar stood up to it. Little by little Lippi�s side were trying to put their game back together. Zamorano played the cushion for Vieri on several occasions, but Mr.90 billion lire made a lot of mistakes. Peruzzi was forced into an intervention on the edge of his area in the 40th minute
due to a lovely pass by Zidane towards Del Piero. Georgatos took a lovely free kick in the 44th. The ball was only a little out to the right of Van Der Sar�s goal.
Inter took the field after the half-time break with three points and Recoba in place of Cauet. Recoba took the limelight in the 3rd minute: he took on four opponents and then put a low ball into the centre on the edge of the penalty box which Zanetti struck with great power. The ball went out by a hairsbreadth.
In the meantime the game became a little bitter. There was a nasty foul by Di Biagio on Davids in the 11th minute. Tombolini pulled out another yellow card. Much more important was the one he pulled out in the 15th minute for Van Der Sar, who had already been warned once, for a presumed handball outside the penalty box which was signalled by the linesman and probably didn�t exist.
Ancelotti took off Del Piero and put on Rampulla and the game continued with 11 men against 10. Inter were pushing and trying to exploit their numerical advantage, but the action was often chaotic and was never dangerous around Rampulla. Inter turned the pressure up and up, but to no avail. In the 33rd minute Lippi dared even more: Baggio took the place of Fresi. In the 35th Juventus stuck their neck out with Davids, but his violent left-foot shot hit the post and went straight back to him. He
controlled it with his hand, however. Juventus again came close to the knock-out blow in the 39th minute with Kovacevic, who sent a nice cross from Birindelli just over the crossbar. Nothing doing. Juventus� great pincer movement simply could not get the ball into the net. Juventus justified their lead with great lucidity and defensive rigour and the triple whistle put the seal on a just result.
