Del Piero Delighted,Palladino Going To Arsenal?

Alessandro Del Piero was delighted with Juventus’ comeback win against Udinese yesterday afternoon, but Raffaele Palladino is not so happy and could be on his way to Arsenal in the summer.

Things were not looking good for the Old Lady as they trailed 1-0 at the Stadio Friuli after a first half completely dominated by the home side.

Juve were much improved though after the break and goals from Mauro Camoranesi and Vincenzo Iaquinta earned them a crucial 2-1 victory.

“We got a very important win against an excellent Udinese side who showed why they are having such a good campaign by taking a first-half lead,” Del Piero stated on his personal website.

“But in the second period we reacted in a way that enabled us to take control of the game.

“We chased down every ball and put pressure on them with a more aggressive approach. In the end we got two very good goals that allowed us to take all three points.

Del Piero’s team-mate Raffaele Palladino is not so happy as he was granted just 20 minutes as a substitute.

The Neapolitan would have been expecting to start the match after a superb performance for Italy in the midweek friendly win over Portugal.

Palladino has been complaining about his lack of action and for having to play out of position, and even hinted of a summer exit.
This possibility is growing as reports are strengthening that Arsenal are set to launch a summer bid for the star.

Gunners manager Arsene Wenger is a huge admirer of the 23-year-old and has attempted unsuccessfully to sign him in the past.

Calcio Debate: Del Piero – Trezeguet & Great Forward

On Sunday evening Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet once again showed just how outstanding their forward partnership is by sharing another three goals between them. Carlo Garganese asks where the Juve-duo rank with some of the great Serie A partnerships of the past…

Anyone who saw David Trezeguet’s second goal against Livorno a couple of nights ago will surely have stood up and applauded the telepathic link-up play between the Frenchman and strike-partner Alessandro Del Piero.

Since the year 2000 when Trezeguet first joined Juve, the pair have been terrorising opposition defences, scoring goals galore virtually every season.

The level of consistency over a period of nearly eight years is something quite extraordinary. Below is the total of combined goals scored by Trez and Del every season from 2000.

2000/01: 24

2001/02: 53

2002/03: 36

2003/04: 36

2004/05: 31

2005/06: 49

2006/07: 38

2007/08 (so far): 23

In total, according to the figures above, Del Piero and Trezeguet have hit 290 goals between them.

When you consider that Filippo Inzaghi was first-choice for large portions of Trezeguet’s first season, while Del Piero was often substitute or substituted during Fabio Capello’s time in charge, then this accumulation is even more impressive.

Then of course there are injuries to consider, as well as the fact that Trezeguet doesn’t take penalties, although of course this is perhaps countered by the fact that Del Piero does.

Many have always doubted whether Del Piero and Trezeguet were really made to be a partnership. Neither is renowned for their physical strength, nor for their ability to hold up the ball, or most importantly for their pace.

Some top strikers have also joined Juventus over the past eight years, probably to give Juve an extra dimension in this sense.

The likes of Marco Di Vaio, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and most recently Vincenzo Iaquinta have all threatened to lead to the downfall of one of the pair.

Di Vaio had an excellent start to his career in Turin in 2002, but soon fell off the radar as it became obvious that he was no match for either of Trezeguet or Del Piero.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined in 2004 and soon became a favourite of Fabio Capello, who clearly preferred the Swede to Del Piero.

Although Ibra was outstanding in his first season, scoring 15 Serie A goals, everyone will remember that he couldn’t hit a barn door in his second campaign, netting just seven times.

Meanwhile Del Piero, who as mentioned above was often used as a substitute (or substituted early in the second half), still managed to score just one less than Ibrahimovic in the latter’s first season (in fact two more if you include Champions League goals), while in 2005/06 he hit the back of the net 20 times in total. Trezeguet meanwhile smashed in 45 during these two years.
This sequence has continued this current campaign. Vincenzo Iaquinta was brought in from Udinese and in truth has made an excellent start to his Juve career. The 28-year-old even dislodged Del Piero as a first-choice starter for a while.

However it soon became clear once again that Iaquinta could not match the [goalscoring] consistency of Del Piero and Trezeguet, and it was only a matter of time until the old partnership was resumed.

At the age of 33 and 30 respectively, the duo are still going very strong, and have already hit 23 goals between them this season, particularly impressive when you consider how weak and embarrassingly uncreative Juventus’ midfield currently is.

At times it is true that Del Piero and Trezeguet do not seem like they are well-suited to each other and a lack of pace can be a problem in some games.

However statistics do not lie and when the partnership is finally broken up for good, the pair will surely go down as one of Serie A’s great deadly duo’s.

Some Great Duo’s From The Past (note these are not necessarily both centre-forwards. They could be two players, like Michel Platini and Paolo Rossi, who just had an outstanding understanding together)

Andriy Shevchenko & Filippo Inzaghi (Milan)

Alessandro Del Piero & Filippo Inzaghi (Juventus)

Giuseppe Signori & Pierluigi Casiraghi (Lazio)

Fabrizio Ravanelli & Gianluca Vialli (Juventus)

Gabriel Batistuta & Francesco Baiano (Fiorentina)

Marco Van Basten & Daniele Massaro (Milan)

Roberto Mancini & Gianluca Vialli (Sampdoria)

Diego Maradona & Careca (Napoli)

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge & Alessandro Altobelli (Inter)

Michel Platini & Paolo Rossi (Juventus)

Francesco Graziani & Paolo Pulici (Torino)

Roberto Bettega & Roberto Boninsegna (Juventus)

Angelo Sormani & Pierino Prati (Milan)

Omar Sivori & John Charles (Juventus)