Empoli in Winning a Match Shock!

By: Martha | December 7th, 2007

OMG YAY! In the first match of the nearly all-Serie A last 16 of the Coppa Italia (only Ascoli remain from the lower divisions), Empoli hosted Juventus. Shockingly, the home side not only played well, but also managed to come out of the match with a fairly convincing 2-1 win, and head to Turin next month with a fighting chance to knock the Old Lady out.

While the Juve squad that played the match was by no means first-choice, they weren’t exactly a bunch of hacks: Alex Del Piero captained the team, which included Raffaele Palladino, Hasan Salihamidžić and two midfielders eager to put on a good show for anyone from other teams (”Anywhere in the world. Please. Save us!”): Tiago and Sergio Almiron. On the other side of the ball, Empoli, who need any win they can get no matter the competition, played more or less their regular crew, and new coach Gigi Cagni celebrated his second match in charge by handing Juve-owned pocket rocket Sebastian Giovinco the start he earned ages ago. The kid repaid his faith by walking off with MOTM honors; we’ll see if that translates to more playing time (at Empoli, not Juve).

Empoli were, perhaps understandably, the most interested team from the start, and would have gone ahead right from the open, was it not for the good work of ~~little~~ never-used Emanuele Belardi is the Juve goal. The breakthrough came in the 20th minute, when a header by Azzurrini starlet Nicola Pozzi finished off a move started by, yes, Giovinco. The home side extended their lead shortly after halftime through Ignazio Abate — another U-21 player — who beat two Juve defenders and finished past Belardi.

A few minutes later, Almiron received a second yellow for complaining too aggressively about his first one, and was sent off — nice advertisement for your services there, Sergio. Juve got better down to 10 men, though, and the arrival of supersub Vincenzo Iaquinta led to the inevitable goal about ten minutes before time. There may or may not have been a handball in the box late in the game, but Juve’s appeals were waved away by the referee, and they’ll head home needing a win to move on in the Coppa. (Of course, knowing Juve, they’ll thump Empoli 7-0, and push the club down the path to gaffer #3.)