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SuperMario Balotelli knocks Juventus out of the Cup
Posted - 31st January 2008
Mario Balotelli Barwuah, already nicknamed 'SuperMario' and 'PatoNero', made his first team debut with Inter less than a month ago, and yet the 17 year old has already stolen all the front pages today thanks to his superb performance against Juventus in last night's quarter-final Italian Cup clash.
The Italian-born Ghanian (who can only avail of Italian citizenship legally upon his eighteenth birthday) scored two crucial goals, the second of which clinched the victory for Inter - and thus finds himself catapulted into the limelight. Inevitable, really, given the press reception for AC Milan's young star Pato.
Inter went into the game with work to do, having drawn at home against Juve in the first leg of the quarter-finals (2-2). And yet Juventus took the game almost immediately to the current Serie A leaders - avoiding the temptation to lock the game down. A decision which would cost them dearly, thanks to the still somewhat unknown quantity of Balotelli, who started the game up front paired with Cruz.
The first goal went to Balotelli, though, just ten minutes into the game taking advantage of poor defending by Alessandro Birindelli.
An in-form Juventus captain, Alessandro Del Piero, four minutes later from a free kick managed to knock the ball in - via a deflection from the Inter wall. A hard-fought battle ensued in the midfield between both teams. The deadlock was broken after the half-hour mark when Juventus' Iaquinta got a tap-in to put the Turin team ahead.
The response from Inter came with a well struck penalty by Cruz, after Hasan Salihamidži? handled a ball knocked in from a Stankovic corner, and so ended a roughly balanced first half.
So the second half opened on equal terms - the advantage of the away-draw squandered by a perhaps foolhardy Juventus. The match went on to be decided by two extraordinary goal chances, one apiece per team, that weighed up age and experience against youth and intuition. For Juventus Del Piero presented a perfect scoring opportunity for his vastly experienced colleague Pavel Nedved, who made a dog's dinner of it (in italian one speaks of 'eating a goal' when a sitting opportunity is squandered similarly) firing it directly at a waiting Toldo. On the other end of the pitch minutes later Mario Balotelli stopped the ball in a crowded Juventus area and thought for a nanosecond about passing it to one of his team-mates, but instead turned skilfully smashing the ball into the net. A beautiful goal, and an eventual match decider. Juventus needed two goals to win the match - something unlikely, even with the introduction of both Trezeguet and Camoranesi. The scoreline remained unchanged, and Inter go through to the semi-finals where they'll face Roman club Lazio.
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