Eurosport - Sun, 13 Sep 05:12:00 2009
Debutant Martin Caceres and the returning David Trezeguet fired Juventus to their third victory of the season as the Old Lady preserved their 100 per cent record with a 2-0 win at Lazio.
Juve lost the influential Diego to injury at the end of the first half but still had enough quality on the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome to secure victory and go three points clear at the top of Serie A.
Defeat for Lazio, who had a seemingly fair first-half goal disallowed, signalled the end of their perfect start to the new campaign. The Biancocelesti remain on six points, level with Sampdoria and Genoa who play on Sunday.
Juventus looked the better of the two sides during the opening exchanges and Trezeguet, making his first start of the season at the expense of Vincenzo Iaquinta, stung the fingers of Fernando Muslera with a sharp shot after nine minutes.
But Lazio settled and came back into the game soon enough, the hosts going on to forge the more clear-cut goalscoring chances during the first half.
Marauding Lazio full-back Aleksandar Kolorov and midfielder Roberto Baronio both brought Gigi Buffon into action with long-range efforts before Italy's number one kept out a second Baronio effort, this time a free-kick, with an unorthodox boot off the line.
Lazio looked to have broken the deadlock just before the break when Stefano Mauri crashed the ball into the roof of the net on the turn following a goalmouth scramble. But the referee saw an infringement and ruled out the strike, even though television replays later showed little justification for his decision.
The hosts failed to maintain their momentum after the break as Juve, who had beaten Roma in the same stadium just two weeks earlier, and they were made to pay when Caceres struck a sweet first-time effort past Muslera in the 72nd minute.
Trezeguet applied the coup de grace deep in injury time with virtually the last kick of the game, the Frenchman finding the back of the net after Muslera could only parry Amauri's effort into his path.
Livorno 0-0 Milan
In the early kick-off, Milan's unconvincing form continued when they were held to a goalless draw by Livorno at the Stadio Armando Picchi.
Having started the new season with a 1-0 win away at Siena, the Rossoneri then slumped to a damaging 4-0 defeat to local rivals Internazionale before the international break.
A positive response was needed in Tuscany, but the performance given was not what coach Leonardo would have hoped for.
With Marco Borriello missing, Milan started with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar partnering Alexandre Pato in attack, but neither could find a way through the home side's defence.
Midfielder Andrea Pirlo went closest to breaking the deadlock, crashing a second half free-kick against the crossbar but otherwise Alfonso De Lucia in the Livorno goal was rarely troubled.
Antonio Candreva stood out for the hosts in midfield, forcing several saves out of Marco Storari from dead ball situations, while veteran striker Cristiano Lucarelli caused problems for the Rossoneri defence with his ability in the air.
As the full-time whistle neared, Milan upped the pressure on the Livorno goal, but to no avail as the Granata picked up just their second point of the season - and just their third in their last seven league meetings with the Rossoneri.
Comment 1 - 9 of 9
hi everyoe
juventus suck LAZIO rule
another stupi.d eurosport writer. Milan won against siena 2-1 not 1-0. english fuc.ktard.
think Lazio deserved a draw Juve were nothing special got to up ther game if they want to progress in to the later stages of champions leauge!
Cruz had his back at Legrotaglie when he allegedly tripped him; when down, Legrotaglie continued to play trying to stop Mauri from shooting. I don't deny that the ref has blown the whistle before Mauri's kick, I merely say that VERY few impartial refs would have called Cruz's foul.
disallowed goal fair??? legro was tripped, and the ref blew the whistle a good second before the lazio player took his shot. get it right eurosport
Yeah, that was a fair call. The whistle was blown before the goal was scored. The defensemen was pushed down, good call. Even if they scored, it would have been 2-1 for Juventus.
Juve is a great team this year, but boy they have such a dubious reputation of being favored by refs, and it's happening again and again.
What's with Eurosport? There was a clear foul on defender's leg tripping him when he was about to clear the ball. A couple of Juve players heard the whistle and stopped, even the Lazio forward who tripped the defender turned around and was talking to the ref when the goal was scored.. How can this be a ''seemingly fair goal''??
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