Juventus 0 - Deportivo La Coruña 0

Deportivo: Molina; Manuel Pablo, Naybet, Donato, Romero; Mauro Silva, César Sampaio; Scaloni (Víctor 80'), Fran (Fernando 70'), Turu Flores (Emerson 57'); Pandiani. 4-2-3-1.

Goals: None.

Deportivo kept up their unbeaten run this season with a valiant draw in the Delle Alpi stadium. This was their first ever game against an Italian side in their relatively short history in European competitions, and they proved they are amongst the best sides in Europe at the moment, matching the Italian giants step for step and almost coming away with a victory in the end. Javier Irureta changed his side around for this match, rewarding his on form players with a place in the starting line up. In came Scaloni on the right wing and Turu Flores on the left, with Fran switching to the centre behind current top scorer Pandiani. The only doubt was about who would join Mauro Silva in the double pivot defensive midfield spots, and César Sampaio finally got the nod ahead of Emerson.

Juventus came out strongly in the first half, with Naybet clearing off the line from Inzaghi on two separate occasions. Van der Sar then showed why half of Europe wanted to sign him with a spectacular save from a Turu Flores free kick shortly before half time. Just after the restart Trezeguet saw his shot blocked by Molina, and the French forward missed another good chance minutes later. Tudor then came close to scoring in his own net, and Pessotti cleared off the line when Pandiani followed up. Deportivo's tactics were to close down Juve's creative play in midfield, with Mauro Silva and Sampaio taking turns to sit on Zinedine Zidane's shoulder, and when another Brazilian Emerson came on for Turu to add to his troubles, the European footballer of the year finally lost his cool and took out the substitute from behind. That was not a good thing to do in front of a Swiss referee, and Urs Meier had no doubts in getting out his red card and sending him off.

With their opponents down to ten men, Irureta brought on four fresh legs (that equals two players for the mathematically challenged amongst you), and Fernando and Víctor could have swung it Deportivo's way. Meanwhile Diego Tristán went off in a huff to the Deportivo changing room seeing that he was not going to get a game, (although he will probably get another chance on Sunday's match against Barcelona, with Pandiani suspended for two matches). The game ended in a draw, which leaves Deportivo and Juventus joint leaders of group E with five points apiece, and with two home games to come, Deportivo look to be favourites to go through to the second league phase. Right now though their minds are set on extending their unbeaten run to nine games against Barça on Sunday. It never stops.