UEFA Europa League – Full time review: Juventus versus Red Bull Salzburg
Juventus and Salzburg played out an interesting yet goalless draw at the Del Apia stadium in Turin in the Europa League group stage.
The first half kicked off in aggressive fashion for the Bianconeri as Momo Sissoko became the first player in the match to get booked in the 12th minute of the first half for his rash challenge on an opposing player
inside his own half. It was a dangerous challenge which was rightly punished with a yellow card by the referee. Salzburg found it hard to get their rhythm in progress early on in the match but they soon found their feet as in the 13th minute
right after Sissoko got booked, Nikola Pokrivac in RB Salzburg was presented with a shooting opportunity. But his strike was blocked by the covering defence of Juventus F.C.
In the 15th minute, Pokrivac followed Sissoko’s example as he foolishly got himself booked as well for an ill timed tackle on Alessandro Del Piero. In doing so, he became the first Salzburg player on the night to
get booked by the referee. In the 17thminute, Juventus had their first proper chance of the match to open the scoring as the ball fell to Del Piero’s feet; however the Italian strikers shot was acrobatically saved by the Salzburg keeper as the score
line remained at nil all.
As the first half approach the half way mark, Juventus grew in confidence as they were playing in front of their home crowd in the Stadia Della Apia. However Salzburg didn’t give up and they fought for every loose ball with the ex-Italian
champions. Nicola Legrottaglie had a glorious chance to open scoring for Juventus in 29th minute of the match as a defender connected accurately with a corner from Del Piero but his header went wide of the mark as Salzburg were once
again left off the hook.
From the 25th minute to the 35th minute, Juventus had a good succession of corners but they couldn’t capitalize on their set pieces as Salzburg managed to keep the home side at bay. The men
in white and black found it hard at times to break down the organized Salzburg defence which did very well to deal with most of the trickery that was thrown at them by Aquilani and Co.
The first half ended with both teams dead locked at nil all but Salzburg did a very good job of maintaining a water tight defence for most of the first interval of the match. As the second half kicked off after half-time break, Salzburg
came out of the blocks strongly. In 49th minute of the match, Franz Schiemer, the Red Bull striker had two golden chances to give his team an unlikely lead against the Bianconeri but both of the first of his two shots were blocked while
a header proceeded which was way off target in the end.
Juventus made their first change of the night as in the 51st minute of the match; Matteo Liviero replaced Manuel Giandonato for Luigi Del Neri’s side. In the 55th minute, Claudio Marchisio
became the second Juventus player to go into the referee’s book as he was penalized for unsporting behaviour. The referee appeared to be a strict one on the night as he left no rash challenge unpunished in the whole encounter.
Juventus soon made their second substitution of the night as they replaced Milos Krasic with Marcel Buchel in the 61st minute of the game. It was an interesting change by Del Neri, who was clearly in a mood to save
his star players for Juventus’s upcoming weekends Serie A encounter rather than risk their fitness for the full 90 minutes against Salzburg. Juve’s second change was followed up by Salzburg’s first substation as well as the Austrian club side replaced Nikola
Pokrivac with Christoph Leitgeb.
The second half of the match passed away with Juventus in dominance throughout; the Italian giants were ruthless on the ball but on most occasions they failed to make their superiority count. In the 79th minute,
Juventus once again had a chance to get the opening goal of the match but Del Piero once again was lackluster with his finishing as the Italian side remained at level terms with the Austrian champions. The match eventually ended at nil all as both the sides
gave a good account of themselves but neither had the cutting edge that would have won them the match.
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