Chapter 52: Retribution
Fiorentina continued to lead the table with a home win over Atalanta in a three-game winning streak, before AC Milan were held to a 1-1 draw away at underdogs Siena in the next few games.
In the first half, Siena striker Macarone opened the scoring. In the next game, AC Milan played extremely hard, it seems that the Milan players have not yet come out of the shadow of being defeated by Fiorentina, Ronaldo on the front line, this game is like sleepwalking, although Gilardino has a few chances to score, but unfortunately when he is on the verge of kicking, he always lacks a little luck.
Seeing that Milan is about to suffer the second strength of the season, in stoppage time, Milan's savior has finally arrived, only this time, it is not Kaka who saved Milan, but central defender Nesta, he used a header in a corner kick opportunity to equalize the score, and then Milan also wanted to take the opportunity to overtake the score, a minute later, Seedorf hit the crossbar with a long-range shot, and finally AC Milan could only accept a helpless draw.
Milan's other side of the team, this round of games won against their opponents Catania, Materazzi, Zivu, Samuel, Vieira are out due to injury, Mancini also has to rotate for the Champions League in midweek, Adriano, who has been idle for a few games by Mancini, finally got the chance to start, alongside Crespo in attack, and the veteran Cesar as a left midfielder.
Catania drew in the previous two rounds, although this round of the game was an away game, but it was not conservative at all, but the strength was not good, Inter Milan won 2-0 at home against Catania with two goals in the second half of Stankovic.
In this game, although Adriano, who started the game, worked very hard, but his state reached the freezing point, and there were not even two decent shots in the whole game, and the second half was just ten minutes old, and Mancini, who couldn't bear it, replaced him with Cruise, and Adriano and Inter Milan broke up and entered the countdown.
Roma, who also won two games in a row in the opening season, visited Reggina in this game, and due to Panucci's injury, Brazilian central defender Juan was given the opportunity to play.
Both teams lacked bright spots in the first half, and it wasn't until the fiftieth minute of the second half that the deadlock was broken, when Totti drove a free-kick in front of the field, Juan cleverly cut in from the left and cleverly bypassed the opposition defence, and fired a clever back-heel volley five meters in front of goal!
In the next game, Reggina tried to strengthen the attack to equalize, and also played a few beautiful attacks, but when the game reached the 85th minute, their hopes were finally dashed, Cicinho crossed low from the right, Aquilani cleverly leaked, Totti 13 meters in front of the goal, low right foot into the bottom left corner, 2-0 sealed the victory.
Juventus, another team in contention for the title this season, are confident of winning this game against Udinese after two consecutive wins.
Claudio Ranieri fielded the full squad with Billindeli to replace the suspended Zebina, Trezeguet partnered Piero up front, the Frenchman was just one goal away from his Serie A goals, and Udinese veteran Iaquinta did not start.
But at the beginning, it was Udinese who took the initiative, and the continuous attacks made Juventus's penalty area in danger, and Juventus also began to launch a counterattack after stabilizing the situation.
However, in the twentieth minute of the game, Juventus suffered a heavy blow, and Camoranesi, who was in excellent form, suffered a leg muscle strain, and was taken off the field by the staff, and Digan's former team-mate Nocerino came on as a substitute.
Without Camoranesi's explosive point in the attacking system, Juventus's offensive gradually showed signs of silence, and the two teams exchanged blanks in the first half.
As a result, in the second half, the situation on the field changed dramatically, and in less than 100 seconds after the start, Udinese took the lead, Inle passed a ball over the top from the edge of the middle penalty area, Dosena grabbed the volley in front of Crischato, and Di Natale scored with a header from 10 meters in front of the goal, 1:0.
In the next game, Juventus launched a counterattack on all fronts, and Ranieri also made substitutions one after another, hoping to save the defeat.
Towards the end of the game, the biggest controversy of the game arose, when Iaquinta's header went into the far corner in the 89th minute, but the referee ruled that Piero had pushed Korda first, and the goal was disallowed, triggering a collective protest from Juventus.
Juventus ended up losing 1-0 at home.
Ranieri's first defeat of the new season, and in a very painful way, had a bitter taste of the first defeat of the new season on their home turf, and in the eyes of Turin's "All Sports", Juventus's defeat was completely still paying a heavy price for the turmoil a year ago.
According to All Sports, this is not the first time that the referee who officiated Juventus' match against Udinese has targeted Juventus harshly, having previously cancelled Juventus' goals, ignored penalties that should have been awarded, and once handed down a red card to Nedved when officiating Juventus-related matches.
In this game, a penalty he made in the Zuihou moment undoubtedly dealt Juventus a heavy blow again. Commenting on Farina's enforcement of the Juventus watch during the match, AllSport used the phrase "using precision sights" to accuse Farina of being nitpicking about Juventus.
He also said that although Udinese did show a more physical condition, in addition, Juventus's final defeat was indeed inseparable from the two penalties that Farina gave to the Juventus players, and his decision also aroused the dissatisfaction of the Bianconeri.
However, it is now useless for Juventus players to argue with referees on the pitch, and the referees have never been clearer about the principle of officiating Juventus-related matches: when there is doubt about the decision, the Juventus opponent is ruled in favour.
And this not only displeased the Juventus players, but also made the Juventus fans feel isolated and deceived by these controversial referee decisions.
In the last round of Serie A, Juventus played Cagliari away, and the referee also awarded two penalties to Juventus.
If the decision in Sardinia did not affect the final result, the injustice suffered by Juventus in this match against Udinese completely damaged Ranieri's team.
However, the dissatisfaction of Juventus players and fans was not supported by the management of Juventus FC, and when talking about the attitude of Juventus' top management towards the penalty, "All Sports" mockingly said that out of respect and attention to social ethics, these polite gentlemen not only did not protest, but humbly bent down.
This caused discontent among the fans, who demanded that while they did not have to overreact as they did in the days of the Big Three, Copoli and others should at least protest and become protectors for the club's players.
Juventus are now paying the debt for their original mistakes, and it is also true that whenever there is an unfavorable decision on the field, the referees are always looking at Juventus' opponents.
Juventus fans are protesting, but this time, no one is on their side, although the referee's decision is indeed unfair, but more people still feel that the reason why Juventus is where they are today is completely due to retribution.
"That's not surprising, and I don't think they should complain about anything, because when they were cared for like nannies, weren't those who suffered injustice just as uncompensated!?"
Digan, who was interviewed by reporters, left only one sentence, and it was clear that he had no good impression of Juventus at all.
"I don't want to talk about it right now because I have more important things to do, the Champions League, which I think is much more important than the Juventus!"