Fulham 4 : 1 Juventus then Player Slams Own Racist Fans

It wasn’t all woe for West London in Europe this week. Fulham exerted some revenge for neighbours Chelsea’s CL elimination at the hands of Italian opponents by embarassing a chaotic Juventus at Craven Cottage. Fulham are having a superb season and the star of grizzled veteran coach Roy Hodgson has risen so high, his name has even begun to proposed as that of the next England manager.

It does seem to have been all woe however for Juventus in the 2009/10 season. Having been unceremoniously dumped out of the Champions League after Bayern Munich thrashed them 1-4 in Turin, they were demoted to the Europa League.

For a club of Juventus’ prestige and stature, that was unacceptable enough. They are also an even more unacceptable fifth in Serie A, 14 points behind leaders Inter, and trailing even Sicilian side Palermo. They are out of the Coppa Italia after losing to Inter, and they had even needed penalties in the round before to see off Napoli.

Off the field, they have had an even worse season. One of their players won the Golden Trashcan award for being the worst player in Italy, a former director received a three year jail sentence for corruption and their fans have been fined twice for their racist chanting, which has resulted in closed doors for some games.

So the Europa League was the Turin giants’ last hope of salvaging something from the season. It was looking good too. They eliminated Ajax 2-1 having won in Amsterdam. They drew EPL Fulham, a side with limited European pedigree and experience, and beat them 3-1 in the home leg.

Juve Player Hits out at Racist Fans

Then last night, it all fell to pieces. France’s Davide Trézéguet added a fourth in the second minute and Juventus seemed to be on course to eliminate the West London club. Even when Bobby Zamora pulled one back for the Craven Cottage side seven minutes later, Juventus still had a two goal lead. The game changing moment arrived in the 27th minute when experienced Italian international Fabio Cannavaro impeded Zamora as he ran for a through ball. Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers ruled Cannavaro to be the last man and showed him a straight red card.

After that, Alberto Zaccheroni’s side collapsed to a Fulham side drawn from ten different nationalities. Hungarian Zoltan Gera scored in the 39th and 49th minutes to level the tie on aggregate. Then came the moment all of the USA is crowing about. Rejuvenated and fit American striker Clint Dempsey chipped Gianluca Buffon from just outside the box and put Fulham ahead on aggregate in the tie for the first time. Jonathan Zebina completed Juve’s woe by kicking out at Damien Duff and being sent off.

On his way off the pitch, Zebina appeared to make an offensive gesture at Juve’s traveling fans, adding later, “I was insulted by about 30 hooligans and racists.” Zebina who is of Martiniquais descent, explained his exasperation at the Juve fans:

“They started to insult both me and Felipe Melo right from the warm-up and I’m fed up with this situation. These people have to stop it, at the end we received more applause from the Fulham fans than from our own. I showed the finger, I apologise because it was not a good example for kids. But I was exasperated.”

Relations between Juve and their fans are said to be at an all time low but that is not the end of the story. After Fiorentina and Milan’s CL exits, Inter Milan are now Italy’s sole representative in European competition after their win over Chelsea, the same number as Belgium.

Inter however contain few Italian national side regulars, leading some to conclude that the Azzurri are going into this summer’s World Cup seriously lacking in quality players.

Juve’s Troubled Season:

Juventus Finally Sack Ferrara

Juventus Player Accuses Club Doctors of Incompetence

Juve Player Wins Golden Trashcan

Juventus Director Sentenced to Three Years for Corruption

Juventus in Crisis

Juventus Thrashed by Bayern and out of the CL

Juve Fined for Racist Chanting

Tags: Italy

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