Turin, Italy, Sept 19: A 73rd minute goal gave last season's beaten finalists Juventus a hard-fought 2-1 win over Galatasaray in Champions League Group D Wednesday night.
Although Alessandro Del Piero put Juve ahead in the fifth minute, the Italian champions struggled after Hakan Sukur brought Galatasaray level with a 19th minute header.
But Del Piero, who had struck the bar with a 66th minute free-kick, set up the winner from another dead ball situation when his cross from the left seemed to be poked past Faryd Mondragon by Juve's unmarked 36-year-old defender Ciro Ferrara.
The Italian champions were well below-par against a determined Galatasaray and never managed to produce the fast attacking football that characterised their play last season.

Del Piero gave Juventus an early lead when he was given a surprising amount of space to hook home a right-wing cross from Mauro Camoranesi.



The Galatasaray defence was exposed again eight minutes later when Pavel Nedved fed David Trezeguet whose low left-foot strike was pushed round the post by Mondragon.



But the Turks got back on level terms with Hakan Sukur heading in a Cesar Prates corner from at the near post.


Bureau Report