Rome: Massimo Donati scored the only goal of
the game as Bari stunned Juventus 1-0 in front of 60,000 fans
in the San Nicola stadium.
There were no such problems for AC Milan at the San Siro,
watched by new signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as they trounced
promoted Lecce 4-0 yesterday.
Bari fully deserved their victory as they dominated
throughout against a much-changed Juve side with the Turin
giants suffering their first season-opening defeat in 28
years.
Coming off their worst ever season, Juve came into this
game with a new coach, Luigi Delneri, and having spent big in
the off-season on nine new players.
But with all those changes the visitors put in a
disjointed performance in which they were always second best,
with new signings Milos Krasic and Simone Pepe failing to
shine and being hauled off at half-time.
And it does not bode well either for Italy, who begin
their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign next week, as Juve fielded
seven Italy internationals and nine Italians in their starting
line-up.
Despite Juve losing on the opening day of the season for
the first time since 1982, Delneri was not too downhearted.
"We had some difficulties but we also created chances,"
he said. "We tried to do our best and we didn`t give too much
away.”
"We were beaten by a wonder strike from Donati. We tried
to equalise right up until the 92nd minute so I was happy with
the lads` attitude."
As for Juve`s title chances, Delneri was quick to insist
that`s not his aim.
"I never said we must chase Inter Milan, we must simply
improve and quickly get back on track, it`s only the first
game."
The hosts had a great chance to take the lead on 22
minutes after they carved open the Juve defence.
Algeria forward Abdelkader Ghezzal played a one-two with
Paulo Barreto and cut in from the left to home in one-on-one
with Marco Storari but the goalkeeper made himself big and
smothered the chance at his near post.
Bari earned a deserved lead two minutes before the break
as Claudio Marchisio got the wrong side of Donati who turned
him and had time and space to slam a left-footed shot from 20
yards in off the far post.
Flying Honduras winger Edgar Alvarez wasted a glorious
opportunity to double the lead when clean through on Storari,
failing to shoot first time and allowing defenders to get back
and snuff out the danger.
Barreto then latched onto a ball over the top and rounded
Storari but his shot from a tight angle was cleared off the
line by the back-tracking Giorgio Chiellini.
Brazilian forward Pato was unstoppable for Milan,
grabbing a brace.
He opened the scoring on 16 minutes with an angled drive
from the right across goalkeeper Antonio Rosati.
And after Thiago Silva had prodded home following a
goalmouth scramble, Pato beat the offside trap to run onto
Ronaldinho`s pass, round Rosati and slot home.
Veteran striker Filippo Inzaghi rounded off the scoring
in the final minute with a typical predator`s strike, slotting
through Rosati`s legs.
Sampdoria bounced back from the disappointment of
Champions League elimination during the week to beat Lazio 2-0
at home.
Antonio Cassano opened the scoring with a penalty before
Stefano Guberti lobbed the second into an empty net.
Ten-man Fiorentina held Napoli to a 1-1 home draw as
Gaetano D`Agostino equalised Edinson Cavani`s opener for the
visitors. On Saturday, AS Roma were held to a 0-0 home draw by
promoted Cesena while Genoa won 1-0 at Udinese.
Champions Inter Milan play away to Bologna on Monday
night.
Bureau Report
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