Juventus shows class against Victory

A magnificent goal from Melbourne Victory striker Carlos Hernandez provided the highlight, but it was Juventus who emerged deserved 4-1 winners from their exhibition match at Telstra Dome tonight.

Juventus scored the final three goals of the match – a 65th minute penalty to Raffaele Palladino, a superb 90th minute header from Marco Marchionni and a nice strike from Palladino in injury time.

Those goals came after Hernandez had brought the game to life with a cracking strike to level the scores 11 minutes into the second half.

That goal turned the match into a contest, which had not been the case in the first half, with the famous Italian club clearly outclassing the A-League side.

Juventus, despite missing a clutch of their biggest stars through a combination of international commitments, injury and personal reasons, still demonstrated a gulf in class between them and the local side.

They were able to spread the Victory defence with strings of quality passes which set up threatening attacking moves on a regular basis.

Melbourne, by contrast, responded to the pressure by regularly bombing ineffective long balls out of defence, with little creative attacking play in the first half.

It took just six minutes for the visitors to hit the scoreboard.

Marchionni, who was a dangerman throughout the match, provided a fine cross from the right side and Nicola Legrottaglie met it with a well-time leap at the near post to head home.

Marchionni went close to scoring himself with an opportunistic shot shortly after, volleying a headed clearance by Matthew Kemp just wide of the right post.

The only moments in which Melbourne posed any threat in the first half came courtesy of the classy footwork of Hernandez.

He almost found Pondeljak at close range with a clever short, low pass in the 28th minute, Juventus captain Alessandro Birindelli just managing to slide in and cut off the pass.

Leading 1-0 at halftime, Juventus again were in control in the opening minutes of the second half, with Marchionni just missing from a good chance set up by Tiago Cardoso Mendes nine minutes in.

But the game changed complexion in the 56th minute, when Hernandez latched onto a ball from just outside the penalty box, his screeching right-footer hitting high on the back of the net before Juventus’ Australian-born keeper Jess Vanstrattan could react.

It inspired the Victory to their best period of the game, with Hernandez breaking clear of the defence two minutes later, but failing to get off a shot before being brought down in the box, one of several dangerous Melbourne attacking moves.

But Juventus pulled ahead when Sebastian Ryall was penalised for pulling down Marchionni in the box, Victory captain Kevin Muscat protesting furiously at the decision, before Palladino slotted home from the spot.

The visitors’ best goal was scored by Marchionni in the final minute, with a huge jump to rise above Kemp from the far post and connect with a long Palladino cross, before Palladino completed a good night with the last goal.

Melbourne captain Kevin Muscat said it was obvious there was a class gap between the sides, despite the many young players fielded by Juventus, saying comparing the two sides was not “comparing apples with apples”.

But he said Victory had their moments in a match in which the many members of Melbourne’s Italian community in the 43,357 crowd were happy whichever way the result went.

“In patches I thought we did okay, we matched them, but all in all they’re a very good side, their defence was superb, Carlos scored a great goal against them,” Muscat said.

“I was a bit disappointed with the penalty, I thought we had a good opportunity when Carlos went down and five minutes later down the other end they get one, that broke our back a little bit.”

Victory coach Ernie Merrick said star striker Archie Thompson, who played only the second half tonight as he recovers from a knee injury, jarred the knee early in the half, but it was not believed to have caused any serious damage.