Monitoring Desk
LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 8, 2012: Juventus registered their first UEFA Champions League win of the season after a comfortable 4-0 victory over FC Nordsjaelland, the official FIFA website reported.
First-half strikes from Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal and Sebastian Giovinco, plus a second-half header from Fabio Quagliarella were enough to see off the Norwegian champions as the Italians finally tasted victory after three successive draws.
For the hosts, Mauricio Isla came in for Stephan Lichtsteiner who was injured in their 3-1 loss to Inter at the weekend, while Alessandro Matri replaced Mirko Vucinic. The visitors made two changes from the team who won 2-1 at Sonderjyske, with Soren Christensen and Morten Nordstrand making way for Andreas Laudrup and Nicolai Stokholm.
After Chelsea's late win over Shakhtar Donetsk left the defending champions in second place one point ahead of the Italians, assistant Juve coach Angelo Alessio admitted his side's clash at home to the English side will be crucial.
"We must beat Chelsea at home in the next game if we are to earn our place in the next round," Alessio told Sky Sport. "We wanted to go out there with the right degree of intensity and the lads got it right for this type of performance."
Marchisio admitted Juventus's defeat to Inter had put the fire back in Juve's bellies. "After our defeat to Inter there was a lot of talk, but someone forgot to mention we hadn't been beat for over a year," said the Italian. "We could have suffered a psychological blow, but we didn't let that happen."
Juventus were thankful for a Vucinic strike nine minutes from time to spare the Serie A champion's blushes when the two teams met a fortnight ago. However, it took them just six minutes to get on the scoresheet this night as Isla's low cross from the right was converted by Marchisio from six yards out.
And they were two up after 23 minutes as Vidal capitalised on hesitant Nordsjaelland defending to slide in and divert the ball past Jesper Hansen. The home side then almost grabbed a third just three minutes later as Andrea Pirlo's corner was headed onto the crossbar from six yards out by Matri.
The visitors were struggling and needed a fine save from Hansen just after the half-hour mark, with the stopper tipping Marchisio's shot from the edge of the area round the post. Juve made it 3-0 ten minutes before the break as Sebastian Giovinco curled an effort from just inside the box into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
The visitors did not manage a shot on goal during the opening 45 minutes and 20 minutes into the second half forced Gigi Buffon into action for the first time, with the Italian No1 parrying Patrick Mtiliga's 25-yard effort.
Juventus rounded off the win in the 75th minute through substitute Quagliarella.
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