UEFA Europa League - Match Review: Juventus versus Sturm Graz
Juventus from the Serie A played Sturm Graz from Austria in the second leg of their UEFA Europa League qualification play-off encounter. After the first match ended in a win for Juventus, who are more commonly known as Juve, Sturm Graz needed a one nil win or more in the second leg whereas Juventus just needed a draw to qualify for the group stages of the Europa League.
Juve played Del Piero and the prolific Amauri in attack, who got their winner in the injury time of the first leg match between both the teams. In defense, the Italian giants went with experience as Chiellini played at the center back position. In the middle of the park, Felipe Melo, Brazil’s villain from the 2010 FIFA World Cup played as the defensive partner to Simone Pepe.
Alternatively, Sturm Grazs starting eleven was made up of Christian Gratzei, Dominic Pürcher, Thomas Burgstaller, Martin Ehrenreich, Joachim Standfest and Gordon Schildenfeld along with Manuel Weber, Haris Bukva, Mario Kienzl, Imre Szabics and Roman Kienast.
Right at the start of the match, Sturm Graz had a brilliant chance to get the first goal and level the tie on aggregate goals but their striker Roman Kienast’s header was off the mark in the 5th minute of the match. The first yellow card of the night was shown to Martin Ehrenreich of Sturm Graz in the 25th minute of the match. Juventus started to control the possession early on in the match but the Italian giants lacked the penetrative power of a top offensive European football team and thus failed to make most of their dominance on the ball.
In the 28th minute of the match, Juve were almost made to pay for their complacency as Imre Szabics of Sturm Graz unleashed a thunderous shot towards the Italian club’s goal but luckily for Juventus’s defense the ball only struck the goal post. During the rest of the half, Juventus had more chances to increase their aggregate lead and seal their place in the group stages but Del Piero and Amauri were off the target for Del Neri’s team on numerous times. Right before the half time, Juve made their first substitution of the match as Amauri was replaced by Davide Lanzafame for the club from Turin.
The first half ended without either side breaking the deadlock as the score line rested at nil all for both the teams. Juventus maintained their dominance at the start of the second half and this time they finally opened the scoring with their legendary striker Alessandro Del Piero getting the first goal of the match in the 53rd minute of the second half with an absolutely astonishing right footed shot towards the Sturm Graz goal.
Del Piero’s goal gave Juventus three goals to one lead on aggregate in the qualification play-off. In the 61st minute of the match, Sturm Graz made two substitutions in an attempt to gain control of the match as Mario Haas came in for Imre and Kainz replaced the yellow carded Martin Ehrenreich.
At the 71st minute mark, Sturm Graz made their third and final substitution of the match as Haris Bukva came on to replace Christian Klem. In the 81st minute of the match, the second yellow card of the encounter was shown to Juventus’s player Marco Motta. Finally the match ended with Juventus winning the second leg of the play-off by a goal to nil and the overall tie by three goals to one on aggregate. It was a fine with for the former Italian champions, who are still on their long way back to their earlier glories after being relegated due to the match fixing scandals in 2006.
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