Villa claim Peace Cup glory

O'Neill's men triumph againts Juventus on penalties

Last updated: 3rd August 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Villa claim Peace Cup glory

Peace Cup: Villa celebrate

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Aston Villa have been crowned Peace Cup champions after overcoming Juventus in a penalty shoot-out in the final in Seville.

After neither side were able to make the breakthrough in either normal time or extra-time, Villa took the spoils in the 12-team pre-season tournament after winning 4-3 on penalties against the Italian giants.

Both sides missed twice in the initial five efforts of the shoot out, with Juve duo Vincenzo Iaquinta and Alessandro Del Piero - who would have won the trophy for his side with a successful penalty - seeing poor shots saved by Brad Guzan, and Steve Sidwell blazing over for Villa and Chris Herd being denied by Gianluigi Buffon.

But it was to be Villa's night as, after Carlos Cuellar had confidently stroked home his side's sixth kick, Nicola Legrottaglie smashed his effort over the crossbar to give Martin O'Neill's side another impressive scalp having also beaten Atlante and Porto after losing their opening match of the tournament to Malaga.

There was little to separate the two sides in an evenly-fought opening period of the final, which saw Juve striker Iaquinta miss one of the best chances when he headed wide from close range after Mauro Camoranesi had nodded Felipe Melo's deep pass back into the danger area.

Melo also went close with an early 25-yard shot for Juve, while for Villa Ashley Young and John Carew both tested Buffon with efforts from outside the box as the first half finished goalless.

Menace

Juventus, who had beaten Real Madrid in their semi-final, turned up the heat after the break and David Trezeguet missed a gilt-edged chance in the 57th minute when he blazed well over from six yards out after Jonathan Zebina had pulled the ball back from the byline.

Iaquinta, who was proving a real menace to the Villa defence, then headed over from a Zdenek Grygera cross before Guzan made a superb double save to keep the Serie A outfit at bay.

The impressive Guzan then did well to deflect away Zebina's half-blocked shot after the Frenchman had latched onto Camoranesi's clever pass and burst into the Villa area.

Juve kept pushing and Iaquinta, having also been denied by a crucial last-ditch tackle by Curtis Davies, put another chance over the bar as Guzan raced out to meet the tall striker near the top corner of the box.

It was pretty much one-way traffic in the closing stages in favour of Juve, but Ciro Ferrara's side could find no way through as the match went to extra-time.

The additional periods could not find a winner either, so the final went to penalties where Villa's youngsters came out on top against their more illustrious opponents to claim the fourth edition of the Peace Cup.

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