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| The year that was for the Old Lady |
| Continued |
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In one amongst a series of season reviews at iSport.in, Srikant Iyer takes a look at the Old Lady in Turin and her exploits this past season of 08-09.
Juventus once again endured a campaign without silverware. Not surprising given the strength of the team. But coming to think of it, one could term this season to be mission accomplished for them with a last-gasp but well deserved second spot in the final league standings. After all, Inter has impressive quality in its line-up and more importantly the depth which helps endure a lengthy barrage of games. This makes first place to be pretty much reserved for Mourinho’s men. With second place in hand Juve secure direct qualification to the Champions League and in fact have accomplished higher than the management set target of minimum fourth place...The Old Lady started the season on a positive note, picking up seven points from three games. It was not to last as she suffered a slump in the next four games, drawing twice and then losing the next two. However, it was the Turin Derby that saved la Vecchia Signora from her woes and returned her to good form. The one-nil win against Torino hugely boosted morale and the players fought their way to secure nine wins out of the next 10, faltering only against league leaders, Inter. The defeat to Inter, in the midst of their winning streak did not hinder Juve and they continued to collect full points.
By this point of time, the merits of playing ageing players like Del Piero and Nedved for just one game a week was clearly showing. They both entered a purple patch with Nedved causing trouble with his surging runs while Del Piero constantly provided key goals and a series of impressive free kicks. Their contribution to the defeat of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu was probably one of the highlights of the season. Amauri had hit by Christmas a rich haul of 11 goals in 16 games in his first season with Juve, ably filling in for the prolific but injured Trezeguet.
Chiellini and Legrottaglie had established themselves as the main centre defensive duo, both being brought in to the Italy starting eleven eventually. Ranieri was being praised all round for his effective utilization of the squad despite many frequent injury-caused shortages.
But all this was before the new year started.
The start of the year was not too kind to the Bianconeri as they dropped 10 points by drawing twice and losing twice allowing Inter to get ahead. They ended up without a win for more than two months. Dropped out of the Coppa Italia by an efficient Lazio in the semis, driven out of the Champions League yet again by an English club (a pattern they seem to resume from before the Calcipoli). This time it was Chelsea and while Juve did give a good fight, a loss is in the end counted for nothing and didn’t give the Bianconeri any cause to celebrate. Juve overturned their luck by winning five back-to-back games thereafter until the end of season collapse that saw Claudio Ranieri get axed and Ciro Ferrara named as replacement Coach.
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