UEFA Europa League Play Off round - Full Time Report: Strum Graz vs Juventus
After battling their way past Dinamo Tbilisi over two legs, Strum Graz were handed a match against Italian football giants, Juventus. Strum are not new to the European football stage, having appeared in it on countless occasions in the past.
They have even managed to play in numerous Champions League matches along with their UEFA cup qualifications. Their best year was in 2000 when they made it to the second group stage of the Champions League.
It has been a decade since then and the team has recently been struggling to make it into the top two of the Austrian Bundesliga. On the other hand their rivals for the match tonight, Juventus have been strgulling as well.
Although being well known as one of the most popular teams in Italy, they have been finding it hard to come to grips with the demands of the game at the present moment. The team has gone three years without winning any silverware and their high hopes have lately been wearing thing. After a long struggling season, they managed to finish at the seventh position in the Italian Serie A.
After crashing out to Fulham last season in this very competition, the Old lady will be looking to bounce back and reclaim its crown as being one of the best teams in Europe and even the world. The will be looking to build on the success of the last match which saw them beat the Shamrock Rovers with a score line of three goals to nil over the two legs.
The game got under way, with both teams initially looking to create some openings, in the other teams defense. Sturm were looking to go against a resilient Italian defense. However they learned the hard way that, you can't simply take a game to any Italian opposition without facing the consequences. Juventus absorbed all the attacks the home team launched and then kept hitting them on the counter.
On the fifteenth minute mark, Leonardo Bonucci headed Juventus to take the lead ahead of Sturm. A delightful cross from Diego, saw the ball come off the head of Leonardo and nestle in the back of the net. As far as games were concerned this one was surely over, since Italian oppositions hardly ever manage to give away such a lead.
The score stayed that way all the way to the half time break, with the Italians looking more than content with hitting the home team on the swift counters. The main player during that half was their Brazilian play maker, Diego who played a very crucial role in all of those moves that were launched by the Italian side.
The first half came to an end with the score line reading one goal to nil in favor of the away side. Both teams went into the half time break knowing they had it all to player for in the second half. The second half got underway in the same manner as the first.
Juventus seemed more than content to sit back and watch the hosts attack and then attack them on the counter. The ball as constantly going back and forth with no team looking to really probe at the oppositions goal for most of the second half.
Juventus were constantly winning the ball back every time their opponents attacked, however the Italians weren't doing very good with the ball when they did win it back, Diego was arguably the best player on the pitch for most of the game and even he seemed to be finding it difficult to do anything special.
Sturm snuck in a goal on the eighty second minute mark, Gordon Scheldenfeld headed in a cross from Haris Bukva. This stunned the Italians who turned their game up significantly. The Italians soon answered with a late goal in the ninetieth minute.
Amauri headed in a beautifully whipped in ball from Del Piero and settled the game once and for all. The match ended with the score line reading one goal to two in favor of Juventus. The second leg is promising to be a nail bitter and shouldn't be missed under any circumstance.
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