Hey Everybody, Remember Me?

Only a goal up and playing with ten men, Juventus again made their supporters suffer. David Trezeguet's glancing header was the winner as Juve put Saturday's loss to Mantova behind them. Ten minutes proved to be not enough time, as Cesena were unable to make the numerical advantage count, losing today against the Bianconeri.

Despite the hardship of having defender Jonathan Zebina sent off, Juve now know that they have a solid backup for starting keeper Gianluigi Buffon. Antonio Mirante produced a great effort as he withstood and early onslaught from the visitors. Didier Deschamps praised his players after the match. He started by singling out his backup keeper's performance:

He would start in goal for any number of Serie A teams. It's not always easy for him being second choice keeper but he never loses his concentration. Working alongside Gigi certainly helps and in the end it's important to have players on the bench who are capable of securing valuable points.

For an hour we played very well tonight. Unfortunately we made hard work of things at the end but going down to ten man and losing Kovac through injury certainly didn't help. The team showed great fighting spirit and a demonstration of personality and character was exactly what we needed after Saturday's defeat. Certainly it helped having two important players back in the starting line-up, [Raffaele] Palladino and [Mauro] Camoranesi. But the team's attitude was also spot on.

We suffered towards the end, with things obviously made more complicated with the one-man disadvantage, but overall it was a great result. We've suffered a lot in that area [defense] this season, but hopefully we'll have [Robert] Kovac back in time for the next game. Will I bring Ciro Ferrara out of retirement?! How about Montero or Torricelli while we're at it! But seriously, things would obviously be a lot easier if we had more defenders available but unfortunately that's not the case at the moment.

Didi and his team find themselves atop the table once again, ahead of Napoli on goal difference. The Bianconeri host Bari on Saturday, while Napoli travel to Lecce. [Eruosport, Juventus official site]

In other Juve news:

• Hasan Salihamidzic is not a bad player, but I'm not sure if he's what Buffon, Trez, Del Piero, and Nedved had in mind. [CCN]
• Did you really think that Gigi would not speak publicly over David Beckham's move to L.A.? [Goal.com]

-ac