Juventus 3-3 Lech Poznan - Artjoms Rudnevs completes hat-trick in injury time to stun Italian giants

Posted Friday, September 17, 2010 by Goal.com

Juve came from two goals down but then surrendered late lead...

Juventus 3-3 Lech Poznan - Artjoms Rudnevs completes hat-trick in injury time to stun Italian giants
Giorgio Chiellini - Juventus

A Giorgio Chiellini brace and a stunning strike from Alessandro Del Piero was not enough to give Juventus victory over Polish side Lech Poznan at the Stadio Olimpico, as Artjoms Rudnevs stunning strike in the final minute of injury time rescued a draw for the away team.

Juventus went into the match with a much changed line-up, Luigi Del Neri decided to revamp his defence giving Zdenek Grygera, Nicola Legrottaglie and Alex Manninger rare starts.

Juve looked to have a hold on the game in the early stages with Milos Krasic looking particularly threatening down the right hand side, but his final ball was either not good enough or there was no Juventus forward there to meet the supply from the Serbian.

Lech to their credit were always in the game and looked particularly threatening on the break, and it was a counter attack that proved to be Juve's undoing as Sergei Krivets found Slawomir Peszko with a lovely cross field ball but Felipe Melo brought Peszko down in the box resulting in a penalty kick, which was dispatched by Rudnevs as he sent Manninger the wrong way.

Juventus were now being overran by the excellent Poznan team with Krivets and Semir Stilic particularly impressive. But to the despair of the home fans a series defensive errors let Rudnevs scissor kick the ball in from six yards after Krivets and Stilic had efforts blocked by Manninger.

The season looked like going from bad to worse for the Italian giants as Lech were in control, but they did manage a late goal in the first half from Chiellini to give them some sort of hope for the second period. Though goalkeeper Krzysztof Kotorowski should have done a lot better along with Manuel Arboleda who fluffed his clearence.

Juve came out after half time much more aggressive and Chiellini got his second from another header after some more poor goalkeeping. Juve were level but given the first half showing did not deserve to be.

The home team continued in this vein putting pressure on the Poznan defence at every opportunity and they got their rewards as captain Del Piero unleashed an unstoppable strike from 30 yards to give his side the lead.

As Juve closed the game off Poznan became increasingly frustrated but could do nothing to thwart the second half dominance of the Bianconeri, though Rudnevs did have a free header late in the match which he should have put away.

But Rudnevs popped up in the final minute to give his team a deserved draw, with a stunning strike from 35 yards out.

Juventus will be hoping to kick start their season at the weekend when they travel to Udinese in Serie A, while Lech Poznan will face Tychy '71 on Tuesday in the Polish Cup.