21 August 2008

Juve chasing 50th winning debut in Florence

Juventus will try and further improve their record relating to League season openers in Sunday August 31st's night game at the Franchi in Florence (kick off at 8.30 pm).

Up until now, starting from the 1929/30 season (the year when the single-group Serie A was first set up), the Bianconeri have a largely favourable tradition on their League debut. Indeed they've won the first game of the Championship 49 times, so they'll be chasing their 50th in Tuscany. The team beaten in the last League opener, on August 25th 2007, i.e. Livorno, were Tuscan too, and were taken care of with a 5-1 drubbing. Away from home, the last winning debut was a 3-0 win at Brescia in the 2004/05 season. Not taking into account the season in Serie B, Juve have won the last seven consecutive League openers.

In total, they have drawn 23 times (the last time at Rimini in 2006, the last time in Serie A in 1996 at Reggiana), whereas they have only lost 5 times. The last defeat was back in 1982/83 at Sampdoria, 26 years ago now.

The goal tally is extremely positive too. Juve have scored 175 goals on League opening games and conceded 68. Among the all-time goal-scorers, the debut expert remains Roberto Bettega, who got 13 in his career, but Trezeguet and Del Piero, who've scored 9 and 7 respectively (the latter the same amount as Boniperti) have often left their mark too.