After being wicked exhausted sunday afternoon following a long night of festivities and drinking, watchg the boys battle Cesena was a difficult task. The Stadio Manuzzi is one of my favorite stadiums and this primetime sunday matchup brought the sparks and flare to wake me up from an exhausted state.
Cesena was solid in the early stages of the match, taking the lead in the 12th minute through excellent work from their young attacking tandem of Graziano Pellè and Ndiaye Papa Waigo which set up Emiliano Salvetti for the 1-0 lead. I was a little frustrated at this point, but the tension in the game kept growing, players were on edge, physical challenges, and the general of all this was the Czech Fury Pavel Nedved. The veteran kept pushing forward and recharging the team late in the first, then Trezegol struck. Off of an insanely long throw in from Giorgio Chiellini, the french striker got on the end of it and easily put it in for the equalizer. This gave Juve a huge boost as just 1 minute later in the 42nd, Del Piero lead a counter attack charge passing to Nedved who like a man posessed beat the Cesena defense and keeper Sarti. I was on cloud nine when the Nedved shot went it, I was loving this little charge at the end of the half. Then Cesena players and the Cesena bench were all livid, all hell was breaking loose it almost turned into a full fledged brawl.
Sometime during halftime I fell asleep, woke up, fell asleep, and woke up again. The second half saw plenty of Juventus shots sent wide and saved by Cesena keeper Sarti. But soon after a shotty defensive set up on a Cesena corner kick let the home team equalize through an easy goal for Papa Waigo. After some more back and forth action, a little nap in between, and then being estatic when I got to see Raffaele Bianco come on and actualy play fairly well the game ended 2-2. Very edgy match, good signs of life from both teams, I'll take the 1 point as Pelle' and Papa Waigo are very dangerous young strikers and Cesena played a very good match and deserved the point.