After a barren first half when the capacity crowd of over 60,000 were treated to patches of brilliance, the match came alive in the second half. Some high quality goals from both sides kept the match evenly poised with the score 3-2 and 15 minutes left. But young substitute Palladino made it 4-2 and put the Italians on top.
Both sides took time to settle down and with almost all players in their Christmas break and just getting ready to join their clubs sides, not much risk was taken. But there was enough skill on display with Edgar Davids, the Dutch midfielder of Juventus and Taribo West the Nigerian defender for the All Stars team very impressive in the initial part of the match.
While the focus was on Gabriel Batistuta, the great Argentina star, he looked a bit out of touch as he slipped twice while trying to take control. At the other end, the Italian star Alessandro Del Piero also looked out of form.
Juventus did more of the attacking with first Del Piero putting a header over the bar and later Antonio Conte a wee bit late in getting to the ball to finish it. The match in fact got very exciting late in the first half when Juventus came close thrice in the last five minutes. Russian goalkeeper Sergey Ovcinnikov was on hand to save twice , the first by Paul Nedved and the second by David Trezeguet while DEl Piero hit wide from close range with only the Russian to beat.
However, crossing over Greek goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis replaced the Russian and unfortunately he was beaten twice in three minutes. The first was the result of a brilliant combined move by the three foreign players in the Italian club side. Edgars gave the ball to Czech Paul Nedved and the latter's cross was netted by Trezeguet, the French striker. The French man, coming out of injury notched his second three minutes later, this time his bouncing header beating Antonis at the far corner.
George Weah, the Liberian who is a former World Player of the year award winner, entered and along with Christian of Chile, who like Weah plays club football here in the UAE, added the much-needed teeth to the All Stars attack. Weah almost scored off his very first touch but his shot was saved. However, Batistuta sent the stadium roaring when he guided the ball home after Egypt's Hani Ramzi passed to him inside the box. Three quick goals the the crowd loved every moment.
Gianluca Zamburatti made it 3-1 for Juventus but in the 30th minute Weah and Christian combined to score for the All Stars. Christian floated a flagkick into the box where Weah showed his skill as he headed home to make it 3-2.
However by then the focus had shifted on Adnan, who entered to play the last 15 minutes amidst one of the best-ever assembled set of foreign stars seen in the region. He tried to combine with Batistuta and Weah but Juventus struck again before close to emerge 4-2 winners. However, just before that final goal, Mohsin Mussabah, the former UAE goalkeeper and Adnan's teammate when the two played in the 1990 World Cup, saved a penalty off Di Vaio.
The Teams:
Juventus: Gianluigi Buffon, Antonio Chimenti, Paolo Monteiro, Mark Juliano, Alessandro Brindilli, Ciro Ferrara, Cristiano Zenoni, Emiliano Moretti, Gianluca Pessotto, Igor Tudor, Salvatore Fresi; Antonio Conte, Edgar Davids, Pavel Nedved. Alessandro Del Pierro, David Trezeguet, Marco Di Viao.
All Stars: Serguey Ovcinnikov (Russia), Antonis Nikopolidis (Greece), Muhsen Musabaeh (UAE), Zvonimir Soldo (Croatia), Taribo West (Nigeria), Bulent Korkmaz (Turkey) Ozalan Alpay (Turkey)' Fabio Galante (Italy), Hani Ramzi (Egypt), Li Ming (China)Atsushi Yanagisawa (Japan), Nawaf Al Temiat (Saudi Arabia), Artim Satiri (Macedonia), Igor Duljaj (Yugoslavia), Luis Hernandez (Mexico), Andreas Herzog (Austria), Gabriel Omar Batistuta (Argentina), Giuseppe Signori (Italy), , George Weah (Liberia), Christian (Chile) and Adnan Al Talyani (UAE).
Gulf News 2003
