5 with the flu ruled out for tomorrow's game This is not good.... MILAN, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Italian champions Juventus have been hit by an influenza bug before their Champions League match with Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday with five players forced to pull out of the game. Juventus said on their website that goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, defender Alessandro Birindelli, midfielder Gianluca Zambrotta and strikers Marco Di Vaio and Marcelo Salas were all out of the match after picking up the bug. Marcello Lippi's side were already without their key inspiration Alessandro Del Piero due to a thigh injury and defender Mark Iuliano who has a high temperature. Juve are second in Champions League Group D - two points behind leaders United.
Well, crap. I mean, it's a deep squad - the players available are still world-class till about half-way down the list. Davids Nedved Trezeguet Montero Thuram Camoranesi Pessotto Ferrara Tacchinardi Conte Fresi Zenoni Zalayeta Chimenti Bonnefoi But even so ... not a lot of options if things start going badly.
do a boro and just not turn up for the game. i know i want Juve to loose but it just wont be the same watching them loose with only a half strength team.
Loose like who? Lazio? that'll never happen. It's not like ManU will be at full strength either. Maybe Juve are just playing mind games, and a few of those ruled out will actually play.
Thuram is also out now That's a bad blow. Three primavera players have been flown in: Daniele Gastaldello, Matteo Paro and Ruben Olivera.
Likely formation from RAI. They have a ? by Thuram but ALSO by Ferrara and Trez, which I suppose means they are ill as well. Chimenti Thuram ? Ferrara ? Montero Pessotto Camoranesi Tacchinardi Davids Nedved Zalayeta Trezeguet ?
Juve site says they are trying to "rescue" Iuliano, who had the bug earlier than the others and might be closer to playing shape than they thought at first glance. Not sure if that means he's being flown in with the primavera guys or what. If so, actually, I sure hope they're already there.
Guess we're looking more like a back line of Montero, Fresi and - who? - Zenoni? Unless Iuliano gets there. I don't think any of the primaveras are forwards, so looks like Zalayeta will be all alone up front. And I'm guessing Conte will get the start. Actually, I think that's the last choice available from the above list, so it's probably a good guess.
4' in and United are already ahead on a goal by Wes Brown. WES BROWN?!?! It's going to be a long night, I'm afraid.
Follow the game with this live text commentary from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/football/statistics/teams/m/man_utd/live_hi.stm
From all the reports I've read, they've said that they're lucky not to have been called for it... Silvestre seems to be fouling a lot, and mean a lot. It's half-time and all the reports are saying Juve have been playing very well. Let's just hope they get that qualizer.
But it's not enough. Final is 2-1. However, with Basel shocking Depor in the other game, Juve remains in second place. Although Man U looks out of reach at the moment, you never know when head-to-head goal difference might come into play, so Nedved's late goal could come into play eventually. It does sound like a heroic effort by short-handed Juve. I can't wait to see next week's return game (it's on espn2 right?!).
Yep, ESPN2 next Tuesday. This time we should have a full squad. A LOT of the reports I'm reading said that ManU were lucky not having a man sent off and Juve should have received a pk. That would have changed the whole game, oh well. They put in a good effort, unfortunately Chimenti wasn't good enough on Browns goal.