juve guarantee top billing published: thursday 11 december 2003, 0.09cet
juventus fc 7-0 olympiacos cfp juve win group d after recording the tournament's biggest winning margin.
by graham hunter at the stadio delle alpi
juventus fc stamped their authority on group d with a devastating, record-breaking victory against olympiacos cfp which saw last season's beaten finalists qualify for friday's draw for the knockout stages as section winners.
magic maresca among a handful of outstanding performers, it was the individual brilliance of enzo maresca which lit up the night. the 23-year-old had a hand in each of the italian side's four unanswered first-half goals and changed wings midway through that period playing with equal ease on his left and right foot.
record broken second-half substitutes marco di vaio and alessandro del piero then added further goals before the seventh from marcelo zalayeta ensured juventus had set a new record for the biggest winning margin in the uefa champions league.
ironic note the ironic note was that oleh protasov's team had started with real threat before being deluged with goals. within moments of the opening predrag djordjevic clipped a free-kick on to the roof of the net. and in the ninth minute he played a one-two with giovanni and then nery alberto castillo before finding himself one-on-one against juventus goalkeeper antonio chimenti, who was able to touch the ball clear.
all juve from then on, inspired by maresca, it was all juve. in the 14th minute the diminutive midfield player instigated a one-two with gianluca pessotto before squaring across the face of the goal for david trezeguet to score. five minutes later trezeguet returned the compliment, allowing maresca to shoot. the deflection off athanasios kostoulas landed perfectly for fabrizio miccoli to crack a left-foot drive past dimitrios eleftheropolous.
landmark goal the maresca masterclass continued when he turned in midfield and waited for a brilliant cross-over run between trezeguet and miccoli before releasing a perfect pass for the italian. clear through on goal, miccoli squared for trezeguet who scored easily with his left foot - a fitting way to bring up the 3,000th goal since the champions league's inception.
shape lost olympiacos had lost shape and were effectively chasing shadows when maresca made it 4-0 in the 28th minute. igor tudor struck a right-footed 40-metre pass to miccoli who had broken the offside trap again, and when his shot was saved maresca powered in a left-foot volley to complete the first-half scoring. the only juve player whose touch was lacking was zalayeta, who most notably missed a free header at the far post following neat play between maresca and alessandro birindelli.
chances missed spurred on by the fact that they had lost three consecutive games for the first time in 12 seasons, juventus never reduced the pressure in the second half. trezeguet missed two point-blank chances for his hat-trick within the first nine minutes of the half before the most remarkable incident of the entire game.
trezeguet denied antonio conte's 50-metre volleyed pass found miccoli in the penalty box and he rounded the goalkeeper. his shot struck the far post, rolled along the line, hit the near post and fell to trezeguet, who missed another open goal before the goalkeeper stood up and collided with the frenchman.
rout complete after the unusual sequence of events the striker was carried off on a stretcher. finally, juventus added more goals when miccoli spotted the run of di vaio, who scored with a powerful shot. then, from di vaio’s cross in the 67th minute, fellow replacement del piero controlled and scored with his first two touches on the pitch. the rout was complete with 12 minutes left when zalayeta finally scored with a header from maresca's corner.
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