JUVENTUS F.C CAMPIONI & EPL Preview !!!

JUVENTUS CROWNED CHAMPIONS OF ITALY

6 years fans of the Old Lady had to wait. They had to endure a match fixing scandal that players and coaching staff were kept in the dark about and that Luciano Moggi (ex president) organised with officials. 2006 was a dark time for Italian football, a time that saw Juventus demoted to Serie B and docked with a -17 points start. A period of time that saw AC Milan, Fiorentina, Lazio and Parma all docked minus points to start the season. Easy scudetto wins for Inter Milan right?
The black and white army stood by the club and although star players such as Ibrahimovic, Zambrotta, Thuram, Cannavaro, Viera & Emerson all wanted out, there was a few super stars that decided to help this club out of a crisis. These players will forever be heroes to any Juventus fan and they are Del Piero, Buffon, Chiellini, Nedved, Camoranesi and Trezeguet.


The whole country bounced back though and Italy with 7 Juventus players won the World Cup which endured also the near death experience of Juventus veteren Gianluca Pessotto who felt the pressure and jumped off the Juventus office building and was in a coma until later making a full recovery.

After all this Juventus came back to the top flight to finish 3rd, 5th and lately 7th positions. Along came former player and now new head coach Antonio Conte to bring back the fire and grint that used to put fear in the oppositions eye. (video of Gary Neville finding out Juventus are the team he will face next).

This 2011/2012 season has been unique and record breaking. Juventus have not lost a game in all 35 league matches not including their cup final run in the Coppa Italia. With one game of the regular season left, it is apparent that the boys would want to finish strong in front of their home fans and hold aloft the cup that brings the club their 30th championship.

A lot has been written whether this is the 30th or the 28th championship but I'm sure the players and fans would agree 30 is the number that were won on the field and the politics that went on behind the scenes shouldn't affect the hard work the players and Lippi and Cappello endured.

Enough said since the left back of Juventus Paolo De Ceglie already customised his Jeep.

There have been many stand out moments this season for Juventus but here are my top five:

1. Del Piero's first league goal fittingly against Inter Milan in a 2-0 win.
2. Vucinic's 27 yard bomb that knocked AC Milan out of Semi Finals.
3. Lichsteiner's first goal of the opening game vs Parma.
4. Marchisio's goal vs AC Milan at the Juventus Stadium 2-0 win
5. Del Piero's free kick vs Lazio in a 2-1 win

Also many stand out players have been apart of this journey to the summit of Italian football and here is the list in order of the top performed players of season 2011/2012:

1. Andrea Pirlo
2. Arturo Vidal
3. Stephan Lichsteiner
4. Claudio Marchisio
5. Andrea Barzagli
6. Giorgio Chiellini
7. Alessandro Matri
8. Alessandro Del Piero
9. Gianluigi Buffon
10. Simone Pepe
11. Paolo De Ceglie
12. Leo Bonucci
13. Emanuele Giaccherini
14. Martin Caceres
15. Marcelo Estiggaribia

Andrea Pirlo cost the club absolutely nothing to get him to transfer from AC Milan and oh how that was a bad deal made by the Milan club. Letting one of the worlds best midfielders go for FREE to one of your biggest rivals. All Juve had to pay was his toll fare on the highway to get him over the boarder.

How about that image of Pirlo and Buffon, The Italian midfielder showing some water works moments after the win, for a player who last year went through hell sitting on the bench and his talent being played down, he over came all of this and proved the critics and especially the AC Milan club very very wrong.

Juventus have 2 competitive games left in the final season game at home vs Atalanta and the very important trip to the Olimpico in Rome for the Coppa Italia final vs Napoli which is set to be the last time we see Sir Alessandro Del Piero in a Juventus jersey and boy is that going to be hard to live with.

EPL - 

Last year at this time the talk was all about the bottom teams and who was going to be the unlucky team to get relegated to the Championship. But this year it is all about the 3rd and 4th positions for Champions League qualification. The front runners are Arsenal and Tottenham but Newcastle are there also ready to pounce. The relegated positions are set and Wolverhampton will be joined by Blackburn Rovers and now awaiting one from either Bolton or QPR to join them. 

Man City seem to have the league sown up if they can overcome one last hurdle in QPR who will be going all guns forward as Manager Mark Hughes faces his old club and also they are fighting for survival, whilst on the red side of Manchester, United head to Sunderland to try and end on a high and hope for an upset from the Blue side of Manchester. Chelsea's season is over but they have one more important game and that is the UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena in Munich. A tough place to play but even tougher without Terry, Ivanovic and Ramires.

PREDICTIONS:

Chelsea vs Blackburn =  4-0

Everton vs New Utd =    2-2

Man City vs QPR =        3-1

Norwich vs Villa =         2-0

Stoke vs Bolton =           1-1

Sun'land vs Man Utd =   1-3

Swansea vs Liverpool = 2-1

Spurs vs Fulham =          3-1

WBA vs Arsenal =         2-2

Wigan vs Wolves =        3-0

Juventus vs Atalanta =     3-0
Fiorentina vs Cagliari =    1-2
AC Milan vs Novara =     2-0
Parma vs Bologna =         2-2
Cesena vs Roma =           1-2
Lazio vs Inter Milan =      2-0
Chievo vs Lecce =           1-2
Genoa vs Palermo =         3-3
Napoli vs Siena =             4-0
Catania vs Udinese =        2-1