Catania 0 - 1 Juventus

Monday March 24 2014

Carlos Tevez got the only goal as Juventus suffered to beat 10-man Catania with both Coaches sent off.

It was top against bottom with 55 points separating them in the standings. Antonio Conte rotated his squad after Thursday’s Europa League win over Fiorentina, giving Marco Storari and Daniel Osvaldo rare starts, while Andrea Barzagli, Angelo Ogbonna, Claudio Marchisio, Mirko Vucinic and Federico Peluso were injured. The Sicilians missed Sergio Almiron, Nicolas Spolli, Alberto Frison and Lucas Castro.

Within the first four minutes Juve had a goal disallowed for a push and Gyomber was booked for a foul on the furious Carlos Tevez. The fiery atmosphere already started before the game when the Juventus team bus was pelted with objects along the road.

It was an extremely tense start and a brawl broke out after seven minutes when Giorgio Chiellini caught Pablo Barrientos with his elbow, so as the move continued Gonzalo Bergessio went in on the Juve defender with an elbow too.

Fabian Rinaudo’s strike flashed across the face of goal and an Andrea Pirlo free kick sailed over. Martin Caceres bravely threw himself at a Monzon screamer from the edge of the box to charge it down.

It was a surprisingly even game, as Alexis Rolin nodded wide from a Francesco Lodi free kick.

There was more tension when Bergessio avoided a second booking for an elbow on Bonucci, but both Coaches protested so much that they were sent off simultaneously.

A corner fell to Bergessio, whose shot was charged down inside the penalty area, while Osvaldo could’ve done better when turning wide with a jaunty back-heel flick, as he seemed to think he was offside on Pirlo’s pass and wasted a great opportunity.

Osvaldo went very close after the restart with an acrobatic overhead kick that skimmed the crossbar when Stephan Lichtsteiner knocked down a Pirlo pass.

Juve did eventually find a way through. Osvaldo knocked down a long Pirlo pass for Tevez, who surged forward and his angled drive bounced off Andujar’s hand to dribble into the far bottom corner.

Catania fought back and a Barrientos ball flashed across the face of goal with Bergessio just unable to get the final touch from a couple of yards and Chiellini almost putting it into his own net.

Bergessio and Chiellini continued their duel that had lasted since the start of the game and the Catania striker took it too far with a second yellow card for another elbow.

Tevez attemped an audacious chip that sailed over the bar and Andujar did very well to fingertip a Pirlo free kick out of the near top corner. Lodi had penalty appeals, but clearly stumbled without contact from Kwadwo Asamoah.

Vidal had the chance to make it 2-0, but ballooned horribly over the bar from a Tevez counter-attack. Tevez then did the same on another opportunity when going for goal himself after a Gyomber error.

Everyone from Catania went up for a free kick and Juve broke on the counter, but Lichtsteiner missed the open goal with Andujar scrambling back.

Source: Football-Italia.net

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