The Old Lady Had A Little Cough On Saturday

Juventus hit a little bump in the road, lets call it Albinoleffe, last Saturday. The result left them one point off the pace, behind joint Serie B leaders Napoli and Piacenza (yeah that's right, Napoli). Juve, playing without injured first-choice strikers Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet, had most of the play and but went down a goal when the golden-boy between the sticks hauled down a streaking Albinoleffe forward (see pic above). Gianluigi Buffon was subsequently sent off for his efforts. The Bianconeri were only good for one goal after having to play sixty-five minutes with ten men. Here was Didier Deschamps' verdict after the game:

"We played with ten men for over an hour so it's a good point. Having said that, with the way we played and the chances we created we might have hoped for a more positive result even with the numerical disadvantage. The boys did very well today and they honestly deserved more from the game. They faced up to the challenge in great fashion and I was especially happy with the performances of [Pavel] Nedved and [Mauro] Camoranesi, they were fantastic today. I count on all of my players and those on the field today did fantastically. We conceded very little and as far as I can remember, we limited them to just one chance in the second half. The rest of the game was all about us."

Turin's Stadio Olimpico hosts this week's league game, against visiting Lecce. [Fox Sports, Juventus official site]

In other Juve news:

• Didi starts planning for the future, and gets a little dig in on last Saturday's ref. [Channel 4]
• Quite the father-son team these two. How this doesn't taint Marcello Lippi, I don't know. [International Herald Tribune]
• Looks like there's already a line to talk to Juve about Trez. Without being cup-tied in the Champions League, one can see why the striker is so attractive at the moment. [Channel 4]
• Someone's not happy that former Juve player Fabio Cannavaro is going to pick up the Ballon d'Or. And for good measure, he's pissed off about Francesco Totti as well. [Eurosport]
• Gianluca Pessotto seems to be feeling better. [Juventus official site]
• The injury situation. [Juventus official site]

-ac