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Derby Della Mole - Juventus and Torino draw 0-0
Posted - 27th February 2008
Despite all the build-up, Derbys are so-often dissapointing affairs, and last night's Derby della Mole, between Torino and Juventus was no exception. There were exciting moments here and there, but overall the match was a deadlock with neither team willing or able to take the initiative to break through the 0-0 scoreline.
The Turin derby is one of the great Italian competitions. Torino, founded in 1906, was the fruit of an internal row at Juventus after the club decided to move out of Turin city. The first meeting between the two clubs was in 1907, in a heated encounter where ex-Juventus club President Alfred Dick, founder of Torino, missed the match after being locked into a changing room by his rivals. The derby has always been bitterly contested, with the teams competing against each other 132 times in Serie A since 1907. Juventus have had the majority of wins, with fifty-seven to Torino's thirty-four. Last night's result was one of forty-one draws.
The history of the Derby in itself creates tension, but last night's match had an extra-edge, given the protests Juventus had made over the weekend against the standard of refereeing in Serie A. After losing to Reggina, Juventus protested (justifiably) over a number of refereeing decisions which clearly put Claudio Raniere's team at a disadvantage.
Thankfully last night's game was almost incident free, and the moments that could have caused controversy were handled expertly by the referee and linesman. Juventus coach Ranieri described the refereeing of the match afterwards as 'excellent' during interviews with the Italian press, notwithstanding the fact that Juventus had a goal dissallowed due to an offside decision (correct), and that Pavel Nedved received a red card towards the end of the game for lashing out at Gianluca Comotto.
Juventus, eager for a result in order to catch up with second-placed AS Roma, and to avoid any nasty late surprises in the season (AC MIlan and Fiorentina are both closing up behind Juventus, fighting for fourth position, and a champions league place), will be dissapointed with the end result. They objectively brought the game more to Torino, but were unable to convert the many chances they created. Torino, though, had the best chance of the whole game, and were unlucky not to have won, when attacking midfielder Alessandro Rosina fired a shot that had Bufon beaten, only to see it hit the crossbar.
Juventus undoubtedly missed the presence of Trezeguet (out with the flu), and their midfield point of reference Crisitano Zanetti (ex Inter-Milan) who picked up a match ban along with a booking in Saturday night's controversial game against Reggina. Zanetti, was particularly missed, with Mauro Camoranesi trying to take up his role directing the Juventus attack from midfield.
Recoba made an early start for Torino, and broke through the Juventus midfield on the counter-attack a number of times in the first-half, but to no avail.
Pavel Nedved played well and industriously for Juventus throughout, but let his frustration to the fore (not helped, presumably, by the weekend's game) after some provocations by Torino's Comotto. His inexplicable lashing out, in front of the referee, led to his sending off. Adding to Ranieri's selection problems for an important game with Fiorentina at the weekend. Both AC Milan and Fiorentina are just 7 points behind a stalling Juventus, and are capable of robbing the club of a guaranteed place in next season's Champions League.
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